


Young and Bullet Proof

by wondergirlcassie



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Brotherly Affection, Crossover, Friendship, I Tried, I lover Percy yeah, I think I need a life, Love, Multi, Post-Series, batfamily, more chapters posted on ff, there needs to be more shipping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-03
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-03-16 03:33:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3472877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wondergirlcassie/pseuds/wondergirlcassie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>-Post BoO & YJs2-<br/>Dick had been gone for six months before being called back to the YJ. He wasn't sure what to expect upon his return, but eight demi-gods from another universe? Well. It hadn't been that. But then again, it was Tuesday night.<br/>-Percy had just wanted to spend an evening with his friends without a crisis happening. When has his luck ever been that good? And knowing that, it was about to get a whole lot worse.<br/>(rated T for slightly darker themes later on)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jinxed It

**Author's Note:**

> (long)A/N: thanks for checking out this story! ^.^  
> A couple of things first, though. Just background stuff. *thinks of the Lego Movie…* Anyways, this story takes place after BoO and YJ S2. However, there is quite a few changes/things that are going to take place, more or less out of order from the normal DCU, as well as some from the YJ series. 
> 
> Key points: This is (more or less) Percy Jackson and BatFamily centered, but that doesn’t mean the other characters are going to be downplayed/ignored. Just not as present, I suppose. The characters are probably going to be a little (maybe a lot) OOC. It’s hard to capture all the characters correctly :^/ Although, I’m pretty sure I got a few right! Many of the changes you’re going to read about in the upcoming chapters, and I’ll hopefully be able to explain them all correctly :) Oh, but for this chap, the cave of Mt. Justice is still there…it shall be explained ^.^
> 
> Updates will be off and on (because life.) but I’ll do my best. 
> 
> Also, feedback! That helps sooo much! And if you have ideas/requests, please, I’d love to hear/read them (and hopefully implement them) :D and I have soooo many ideas! :3  
> Now, enough of me yammering off. These two series are simply epic! But I do have quite a bit to say on the HoO, ‘cuz, come on!! Who ends a series like that?! And there was a drought of Percy awesomeness…*Ahem* on with the story!
> 
> Disclaimer: Nope, I don’t own them. Buuuut…they sorta own me… >.

**Young and Bullet Proof**

Chapter One: _Jinxed It_

 

Percy’s day had been going great; that is, before he and his friends were pulled out of their world and dumped into another.

“By the gods am I glad that’s over.” Percy grumbled, rubbing his face with one hand.

“What?” Annabeth teased as she sauntered up beside him, “lack of sleep and endless paperwork don’t fill you with unending energy?” she smirked and avoided his half-hearted jab.

“Paperwork is the worst monster a demi-god can face.” He retorted, not wanting to think about the pile still waiting for him. “I don’t even know why we have it, it’s not like we’re a government organization.”

“Hey guys the pizza is still warm!” Leo interrupted as he crossed the field, a plate with six slices precariously balanced in one hand. “Wanna see Frank swallow a pizza whole?” Leo volunteered the Canadian.

 “No, that’s disgusting.” Nico stated. Percy grinned, despite all the effort still needed to rebuild the camp, he couldn’t stay annoyed knowing his friends were still here. After all, there had been a very good chance that Leo wouldn’t have been with them…he shook his head, refusing to think about it.

Three months after the rise and defeat of Gaea, things at Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter had returned, relatively, back to normal. With the help of the Romans, the Greeks were able to restore Camp Half Blood into an even better state than it was before the attack of Octavian, and most of the campers had a great time exchanging swear words (and pranks, curtesy of the Stoll brothers) to Latin and Greek.

Things had been good, but Percy was still restless **.** And then Leo came back, right in the middle of their celebration party.

_“Leo!” Hazel threw herself in his arms, wrapping him in a tight hug after he’d disembarked from Festus_

_“And that,” Leo grinned, “is how you get the ladies.”_

_Frank punched him in the arm, too happy to see his friend alive to be bothered by the comment on his girlfriend._

_Piper had marched right up to him and slapped him across the face._

_“How dare you?!” Piper seethed, glaring at Leo who was holding his red cheek. The entire pavilion went dead silent.  “How could you have done something so…something so Percy?” She spluttered. Percy opened his mouth to say something but closed it when Annabeth elbowed in the ribs. “I don’t…what in all of Olympus_ possessed _you to-” Piper stopped mid rant gave him a bone crushing hug._

_Leo grinned and hugged her back. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, I’m just too awesome!”_

_Cheers, whoops, and a “FIRE MAN IS BACK!” cry from Tyson went up, and the Seven wasted no time in attacking their friend into a group hug._

_Percy gripped Leo’s hand. “It’s great to have you back, man.”_

Percy grinned, remembering the feeling of pure elation when finding out his friend was alive and Calypso, who was free, happy and helping around at Camp Half-Blood.

After that, the days flew by with non-stop activity for Percy and others, as they were all either going back and forth between both of the camps, seeing to different activities, things, and finding and brining into the camps more demigods.

 Frank had his hands full as _praetor_ even though both he and Renya were working their hardest.

Nico and Hazel were taking care of the more underworldly stuff. When Nico wasn’t helping his sister or doing other things, he helped/hung out with Will at the Med Bay, even though others found it ironic that a son of the death god was hanging out in a place where people were supposed to get better. But Will didn’t care and even enjoyed his company, and Nico found himself actually smiling, which was weird.

Annabeth was helping Jason with new designs and plans for the statues to the minor and not-known gods and goddesses.

They’d finally managed to catch a small lunch break together before all of them had to return to their work.

“Guys,” Piper got their attention as they all sat in the grass, idly chitchatting. It was something they did when they could, as a way to get out and relax.

“What’s up?” Jason asked, noting the look of seriousness on her face.

“We’ve hardly had the chance to see each other since the victory, and we haven’t even gone out once.” She started, now gaining their attention.

“It’s not exactly like this camp is in any state for us to go out and party,” Nico mentioned.

“I know, but I seriously think we need a break. Anyone can tell Percy is about to turn into a living zombie-”

“Zombie’s are un-dead.” Leo interrupted. “So there can’t be a ‘living zombie.” Nico raised an eyebrow as Piper glared at the son of Hephaestus.

“Anyways, we’re going out to dinner tomorrow night. Any complaints?” She finally said. Everyone looked at each other but no one protested. _It’ll be really nice to get out,_ Percy thought. And they all knew Piper wouldn’t take no for an answer.

The following evening, Percy, Leo and Frank had decided to go to Denny’s despite Annabeth’s protest for real food. Jason, Nico and Hazel didn’t care where they went and Frank was happy since he could order breakfast food, despite it being 6:30 in the evening.

 “I’ve had enough troubles with gods and titans to last me a life time.” Annabeth said when they had all been seated and ordered, content as she sat next to Percy at their booth, entwining her hand with his.

“And enough near-death experiences.” Hazel added.

“Amen to that.” Frank agreed, looking pretty good in his new clothes. Aphrodite had been so pleased that she’d given Piper and the rest of them all a brand new wardrobe, complete with the latest fashion. Some were happier about that than others.

“Boy,” Piper shook her head with a rueful smirk, “I still can’t believe that we actually managed to pull that off.”

“ _We did it, we did it, hurray~!”_ Leo sang the ending song from _Dora the Explorer_ as he used the straw wrappers and sugar packets to create a miniature castle.

Nico threw his napkin at him and scowled. “Valdez, if you sing that gods forbidden song one more time I’m going to knock into a different universe.” Nico threatened.

Percy and Nico fist bumped.

Jason frowned and looked at him. “What world would you throw him into?” He asked. Nico paused, obviously not having thought about it.

“I’m not sure, but one where singing is banned, pizza is only served cold, and girls are seven feet and three quarters tall.” He said, a smirk barely traceable. Leo winced as the other boys laughed.

“That’s cruel man.” Frank grinned.

Annabeth’s eyes lit up. “But you want to more what’s even more interesting? Is the theory that it could be real.”

“What?” Hazel asked, “Girls being seven feet and three quarters tall? Because Hades mentioned a few times-”

Annabeth shook her head, “No, not that. The idea of multiverses. Daedalus had a whole theory on it, and I’ve looked into further, it’s just fascinating!”

Piper and Percy groaned.

“And here we go,” Piper said with playful roll of her eyes, “once Annabeth gets going on this topic, there’s no stopping her.”

“I don’t talk about it _that_ often,” Annabeth defended.

Percy laughed, setting down his drink. “Sorry Wise Girl, but you do.”

Annabeth huffed, playfully slapping his arm, letting the topic go.

The evening continued on warmly, Leo making some strange comment, Frank not getting it, and Nico adding a sarcastic remark. Percy had somehow managed to get blue pancakes, much to everyone’s amazement,

“Hey Percy, why did the beetle not go to the party?” Leo grinned, as Percy glanced at him.

“I don’t know, why?”

“Because he was a ‘ _blue’_ beetle!” he cackled. Percy and Jason sighed as Leo laughed at his own joke. “Get it? The beetle was blue so-“

“We get it.” Annabeth cut him off with a roll of her eyes, and Leo still snickering. Percy looked at Jason, his facing saying ' _wait, you do?'_ _  
_

The boys had ordered practically the entire menu between them and had started a pancake eating contest. The girls just went for hamburgers and drinks.

Percy was more than happy. The world wasn’t ending, no god **,** goddess or Titan was trying to take over the world, all his friends and family were safe and happy, and he was with Annabeth. He gave a content sigh as they stood up to leave, secretly feeling like this time they’d get more than just three months before next crisis happened.

But as the famous saying goes, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So naturally, Percy would soon come to find just how wrong he was.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

“And here you go!” The receptionist chirped, handing Percy back his credit card and he smiled thinly, while tossing a glare behind him. (Jason and Nico had ganged up on him, saying that since it was his nose that had basically almost ended the world, he should pay for dinner. Even though he practically had no money.)

“Thanks,” Percy replied, replacing his card in its proper place. He could have sworn it felt lighter.

“I hope you enjoyed your dinner, and come back again, honey,” She replied, winking at him.

“Will do,” Percy said, completely missing the girl’s hit (and the way she looked at him.)

Annabeth smiled icily at her, sliding up to her boyfriend and taking him by the hand.

“Really, it was wonderful,” She said, her stiff smile still in place, but her grey eyes sent the message clear as day. _He is mine._

“Sooo,” Leo dragged out the word as the group started walking down the street, “now what?”

“We could go to the peer,” Percy suggested, and Nico rolled his eyes.

“Or watch a movie,” Frank added, “We haven’t done something ‘normal’ in a while.” His suggestion was met with nods of agreement.

“Oh, how about we-” Hazel stopped midsentence, her eyes growing wide, all the color draining from her face.

“Hazel?” Frank asked in concern, taking a step towards her. Hazel doubled over, gripping her head, trying not to scream.

“Hazel, what’s wrong?” Nico asked, gripping her shoulders. “Hazel!”

“Can you hear me?” Jason said, moving forward.

“Stop!” Hazel shouted, her eyes closed tightly. “I don’t- I can’t,” Hazel did scream then.

“Hazel!” Nico cried as Frank asked at the same time “What’s wrong!?”

“Percy,” Hazel gasped, looking straight at the demigod, “You need-”

All commotion ceased as the air suddenly contracted, and everything around them just…stopped. The world seemed to fast forward then, and a blue wave slammed open, creating a whirling vortex right around Percy. His sea-green eyes widened and he stumbled back as white and blue strands of…magic started to slowly warp around his ankles, climbing higher on his thighs, around his waist and circling around his hips.

“What the heck!?”

“Percy!” Annabeth and Jason yelled at the same time. He was being half dragged, half consumed by the vortex. Annabeth and Leo jumped and grabbed Percy’s outstretched hand, trying to pull him back out. To the side of them, Hazel screamed. Piper latched onto Leo and added her strength as Frank scooped up Hazel and Jason grabbed Percy’s other hand.

Suddenly, the vortex widened, whirling blue, and now purple, strands grew and fully consumed the son of the sea god, pulling him fully into it.

“Don’t let go!” Annabeth screamed as her and Leo’s hands started disappearing into the vortex as well. Frank gasped as the same strands that had taken Percy wrapped around his girlfriend, and Frank found himself helpless to stop it.

“Watch out!” Someone yelled, but it did nothing.

For, five seconds later, the vortex closed, swallowing all eight demigods in it, leaving an empty sidewalk, seeming as though nothing had ever happened.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

**EARTH-16**

_Ten Minutes Prior…_

“Or we could play Clue, although personally that game is waaaaay too slow for me. Oh! How about we play Twister! Oh wait, that doesn’t start with a ‘C’. Okay then, how about-”

“Impulse!” Blue Beetle groaned. “Why can’t we just watch a movie?”

“But we’ve done that for, like, the past five days!” Bart replied, zipping around the Cave.

“At least it’s more entertaining than what you’ve suggested.” Cassie sighed as she flopped down on the couch. “Why does Static, Robin, and Superboy get to go out and kick butt while we have to stay here and do…nothing?”

“Well, Aqualad did say that as soon as he and Batgirl have finished…whatever it is they’re working on, we get to do some sparing,” Garfield supplied with a shy smile.

“Ugh!” Cassie moaned, slumping further down on the couch. “It’s not fair.” She grumbled, still bitter about not being chosen to go on the mission her boyfriend was leading.

“We’ve also sparred for, like, the past five days!” Impulse said, sitting down on the couch and going to back to moving about the Cave within seconds.

“I can’t believe you’re complaining about this, _hermano_.” Jamie said, “There’s been no crises, no alien invasions, and no villains trying to take over the world. We’re finally getting a break.”

“Oh face it, Jamie. You’re just as bored as we are.” Cassie moped.

There was a collective sigh from the young heroes and a moment of silence and lack of movement from the resident Speedster as they wallowed in their boredom.

“We could play a prank on SB and Robin when they get back from their mission?” Jamie suggested with a shrug.

“Remember the last time we did that?” Beast Boy shuddered. “Robin might be quiet, but he sure knows how to get back at someone.”

Impulse nodded. “He did learn from the best. Wally’s told me some crazy stories about some of Nightwing’s pranks. It’s only natural that Robin learned how to retaliate **.** ”

“Okay, so how about we…play video games?”

“We’ve also done that for the past three days.” Cassie slumped further on the couch.

“I’m SO BORED!” Impulse moaned, flopping on the floor. “Nothing _ever_ happens!”

Less than two seconds later, a whirling blue vortex appeared in the middle of the room, the edges stretching to the ends of the room as ribbons of blue and purple settled on the floor.

The young members of the Young Justice Team eyes widened and they jumped to their feet, fighting stances and weapons at the ready as something inthe ribbons started making human shapes. Then, like water sliding off a table, three seconds later the vortex, with its blue and purple ribbons, disappeared, leaving behind something that definitely didn’t belong there.

A moment of silence descended upon the room.

“I stand corrected.” Impulse said, breaking it as he, along with his friends stared at the eight teenagers that had just been dumped in the middle of their Cave.

The teens stared back at them, not saying anything until one of them, who looked about sixteen or seventeen with black shaggy hair and sea-green eyes, wide in disbelief, spoke.

“What in _Hades?_ ”


	2. Arrival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized that while I've been updating the chapters on ff.net, I haven't here, so this is chapter two! (btw, all the info/actual a/ns are on the ff.net) enjoy! :)

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**Young and Bullet Proof**

_Chapter Two: Arrival_

 

“Eurgh, Nightwing is going to kill me.”

“Nightwing doesn’t kill.”

“Not yet he doesn’t.” Robin groaned again and ran a hand through his hair, absently noting that he was in need of a haircut. He surveyed the remains of the warehouse, and winced as the last standing wall crashed to the floor making a small dust cloud.

“Well, at least we completed the mission.” Superboy held up a hard drive between two fingers. “Things could have gone worse.”

 _And things could have gone a whole lot better, too_. Robin thought to himself as he gingerly touched his ribs. _Yup, those are most definitely sprained, possibly broken. Great._ He looked over to Superboy, who wore the remains of his tattered shirt, but looked fine other than some dirt covering his face and pants.

Robin was assigned field leader, which had been happening quite often and he was slowly starting to feel more and more comfortable in the position. He, Superboy and Static had been sent on a recon mission to gain Intel about a syndicate that had been causing quite a bit of trouble.

A simple ‘gather info and get out’ mission, which shouldn’t have been a problem for them, and it had been imperative that they remain unseen. Things had been running smoothly, that is, until they were caught. And only ten minutes into their mission.

It was pretty embarrassing.

From there, things escalated pretty quickly, which ended in gunfire, punches, and them knocking out all the thugs and destroying the warehouse.

So much for _recon_.

Static had been called away right after by Black Lighting, and he was more than happy to leave the explaining to Robin and Superboy.

Not for the first time, Robin found himself both dreading returning to the Cave and looking forward to it.

 “He can’t really say much considering the amount of recon missions he’s messed up.” Superboy mentioned as they made their way to the SuperCycle.

“I have a feeling he’s going to forget about those.” Robin grumbled.

 Kon chuckled, smirking. “Let him try.”

“Thanks, SB.” Robin said with wry smirk.

They got on the cycle and headed back to the cave, neither of them looking forward to the explaining they’d have to give to Nightwing.

Nightwing’s return to the cave had been an extremely recent one. After the Reach invasion and everything that had happened, things had returned relatively back to normal.

Which really meant things had become somewhat boring. (Although, Tim mused, he really shouldn’t complain because he was already juggling the Team, patrolling with Batman and school).

After Nightwing’s leave of absence, Kaldur had returned to his position as Team leader, with Batgirl as second in command. Things had been running smoothly, Cassie was prettiest girl Tim knew and he and Conner had actually become pretty close friends, which surprised Tim. They were both pretty solitary guys, but after an incident with a monkey, they’d realized they’d both actually enjoyed each other’s company.

Tim hadn’t seen his older brother for months after he’d left, and coincidently Huntress had also seemed to have disappeared. He had stayed in contact with Dick, of course, while he’d been out searching for Wally, though it had always been over a device.

But Tim could understand, after Wally’s death, things had been hard for everyone, especially for Artemis and Dick. Although Tim didn’t see much of Artemis before but she coped with the pain by becoming Huntress and working with the team. Dick, on the other hand, had asked for space. So for about four and a half months, the only contact they’d had with him was over the phone or computer.

And then he’d showed up one night at the Batcave, with a half dead Wally West slung over his shoulder. Needless to say, the only person he didn’t show any surprise was Alfred, who’d quickly gotten to business at the Medical Bay.

From what they’d learned from Wally, he actually hadn’t dissolved into nothingness in the North Pole, he had been sucked into a different universe. Apparently, the moment the magnetic field disruptor took place was the same time at which a portal had been opened in the other universe, creating a link between the two worlds, sucking the first Kid Flash in.

(Tim wasn’t too clear on the details, he’d have to read the file on the Batcomputer. He did know it had something to do with a Tesseract and a Norse god.)

Nightwing had returned to the Team two weeks ago, although he hadn’t been seen very much around the Cave as he had been helping Batman take care of a couple of things in Gotham. And that was only after Wally West had been found.

“ETA to the cave, two minutes, Rob.” Superboy’s voice cackled through his comm., bring Robin out of his thoughts. He nodded his head, even though Superboy couldn’t see him up front.

“Thanks,” Robin replied.

Two minutes later, Superboy and Robin disembarked from the SuperCycle down in the Cave’s garage, making their way towards to main room.

“You still have the hard drive?” Robin checked with Superboy. The clone handed it over to the third Robin. “Let’s go.”

The double doors _swished_ open, and Robin and Superboy walked in.

“What in _Hades?_ ”

“We’re-” Conner froze mid-sentence as he and Robin took in the situation.

On one end of the cave stood the Young Justice heroes, all of them in a fighting stance, staring across at the other end of the room. A group of teenagers that no one had seen in their life were either crouched on the floor or sitting sprawled out like they had just been dumped there.

There was a moment of complete and utter silence in the cave as everyone stared at each other.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

Leo groaned as he groggily sat up from the floor, rubbing his head. He felt like his insides had been taken out and microwaved, mixed together like scrambled eggs and then stuffed back in. In short, not good.

He glanced up, seeing his friends looking no better than him, except Percy, who was staring ahead with a look of disbelief on his face. Leo followed his gaze across the room- that was strangely windowless- and blinked several times.

A group of teens, well, some of them were teens, stood across from them, their faces mirroring Percy’s.

Leo’s facial expression quickly joined the rest of the group’s as he took in the strangers’ appearances.

 _Either they all just got back from Comic Con or they’re all in Musical Theater,_ Leo thought to himself. _Or I banged my head harder than I thought. And where on earth_ are _we?_

One of the…people…at least Leo _thought_ he was a person, was encased in blue amour, strange insect-like pincers clasped around his back and shoulders. The other boy was dressed in a white and red skin tight suit, a pair of goggles covering his eyes and a mop of red hair sticking up all over the place.

And then there was a kid who Leo was pretty was wearing some sort of animal costume, as he was _green_ and had a tail. Beside him stood a girl, with blonde hair, and a black tank that had a golden ‘W’ across the front.

“What in _Hades?_ ” Percy said, surprise clear in his voice.

Just then two doors opened and two more costumed people walked in. One of the guys, much taller and broader than his companion was wearing cargo pants and boots, and was shirtless. The teen standing next to him had a mask on hiding his eyes, a yellow utility belt around his waist and black and red suit on.

“We’re-” the shirtless dude started to say, but stopped short as everyone started at each other, not sure what to do.

Silence befell the room as everyone froze.

“Woa, cool!” the red haired kid whooped grinning like a maniac, causing almost everyone to jump slightly. “Thisissooocrasah!”

“Impulse, wait-” the masked kid started to call out, but time seemed to speed up as Leo blinked, and suddenly the kid was _right in front of his face._

“Where’dyouguyscomefrom?Oh,nicebeltdude!It’ssortalikeRobin’sbut-”

“Ack!” Leo gave out a rather not-so-manly squeak and scrambled back, shoving his hands out in front of his face.

 _Crap!_ His mind screamed as he watched a tunnel of fire barrel from his fingertips straight towards the kid. The fire, which would have burnt the kid’s face clean off dissipated into thin air as the kid was suddenly across the room. Leo hadn’t even seen him move.

 _What the heck?!_ Leo’s eyes got huge. _How did he just do that?_

“Hey!” An angry voice yelled across the room and Leo found himself being flung back, crashing into the wall behind him, and hanging there kept in place what looked like a blue staple.

 “Ooowww…” Leo moaned. Now his head felt like it had just been hit with a hammer. And his stomach still felt like scrambled eggs. _With a touch of salt_ his mind added.

“Leo!” Hazel and Piper cried at the same time.

“Back off!” Jason growled and sent a gust of wind right back at the blue clad person thing.

Everything had happened in less than five seconds. And it took less than one for everyone, except Leo as he was currently stapled to the wall, to draw their weapons and enter the fray.

It took a little while for Leo’s vision to stop swimming, and when it did, his friends were in full battle mode, engaged in combat with the weird people.

Leo grinned as his vison started to clear, deciding it was about time he joined the party.

“Hey, make way for the one and only awesome, Leo Valdez!” He couldn’t help it, he laughed, even as his head protested, melting the metal with hands and dropping to the floor in a crouch. “Let’s do this!”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

Kaldur turned off the lights as he and Batgirl started making their way to where the younger heroes awaited them. 

“I just spoke with ‘Wing, he said he’ll be here in about five minutes,” Batgirl said.

Kaldur nodded with a smile. “It will be good to have him back.”

Barbra smirked. “Yeah, I- did you hear that?” Her smirk vanished as she got into full Batgirl mode, pausing and tilting her head to the side.

Kaldur frowned, tensing up. “What is it?”

Just then a loud _BANG_ and angry voices could be heard coming from further down the Cave, and then Barbra’s comm. cackled to life.

 _“Robin to Batgirl, do you read?”_ Barbra could hear the worry in Robin’s voice, answering her comm. as she and Aqualad took down running.

_“Batgirl to Robin, I read you. What’s the situation?”_

_“Uh other meta humans? I think… but they’re in the cave and they’re armed.”_

_“Roger that, we’ll be there in ten seconds.”_ She shared a look with her Atlantean friend.

They started running faster.

What Kaldur found when he entered the main room of the Cave wasn’t was he was expecting. Instead of a bloody war zone it looked more like a zoo. Completely chaotic.

He spotted Robin engaged with a blond headed dude in a bright orange t-shirt, and Beast Boy seemed to be fighting someone with abilities similar to him.

Kaldur reached up and brought out his Water bearers, his tattoos glowing to life.

He opened his mouth, but never got the chance to speak as water busted through the door they had just walked through and from the vents in the room, flooded the cave through the doors, pouring in and circling around one of the boys.

“ENOUGH!” The boy shouted, and the water slammed out, hitting everybody and knocking them to their feet, effectively stopping all fighting.

Everyone panted for breathe as they worked on picking themselves up off the floor, soaked to the bone.

“What is going on here?” Kaldur asked in a steely voice walking forward, completely dry, and surveyed the room.

Their uninvited visitors looked like completely normal teenagers, or they would if they all didn’t have some sort of sword or – was that a spear? A group of three girls and five boys started back at him.

“Uhhhh…” One of the boys just stared at him, taking in his webbed hands and gills. “Are you, like, part fish?”

A blonde headed girl who was next to him elbowed him in the side.

“That’s what we’d like to know as well,” she said evenly, slowly standing up. She frowned. “I mean, what’s going on here, not if you’re part fish.” She glared at the curly haired boy who’d asked the question.

“But we would also like to know that as well.” The black haired teen that had controlled the water piped in.

_-Regonized: Nightwing, B03._

The automated voice announced, and two seconds later Nightwing stepped inside the Cave, dressed in civvies with a duffle bag slung over one shoulder, shades over his eyes.

The group looked at him, most of the kids with varying expressions of disbelief.

“I thought that only happened in _Star Treck._ ” Said a one of the boys who looked slightly Asian with a tinge of a Canadian accent in his voice.

Nightwing raised an eyebrow and simply stared at what was before him.

“….aw, a party. And you didn’t invite me?”

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	3. A Point Is Made

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and chapter 3 :) warnings, this is unbetaed and there is some mistakes/oocness ehehe. but anyways, hope you like it! <3

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**Young and Bullet Proof**

_Chapter Three: A Point Is Made_

 

Being the son of the Roman god of war, Frank Zhang had been in many situations that were plenty strange, freaky, and downright weird. This, though, took the cake.

They were seated around the living room of the, what they had just recently learned was a cave inside a mountain, drinking tea and eating cookies.

 _Drinking tea and eating cookies_.

Frank would have laughed if it wasn’t so outlandish.

Yup. Definitely the weirdest situation. Especially since right across from them were the…people (Frank knew for certain that not all of them human) they had just fought with, either sitting on the couch opposite or standing.

The boy that seemed to move at the same speed as Hazel’s horse (maybe even faster) looked rather eager to start running around the cave again, but stayed still due to the glare the Sunglasses Dude sent him. (Even though he hadn’t been there when the fight began, it seemed he just knew that the Speed kid had started it).

Next to him sat the Blue Insect guy (who, now that Frank thought about it, looked like a beetle. A _blue_ beetle. That was weird) and Frank’s doppelganger when it came to skill sets. Even if the boy looked younger and much greener, slightly monkey-like, they shared the same powers. Frank was just _slightly_ curious about that. Maybe he was a son of Mars too?

Standing back behind the couch was the shirtless dude and his younger friend with the domino mask, both looking worse for wear. Beside him was the blonde headed girl, with the gold ‘W’ across her chest, and a yellow lasso attached to her hip.

Then there were the three new people, young adults they seemed. The guy with the gills and webbed hands stood with his arms crossed over his chest next to the couch. He had the same colored skin as Leo, but had almost white hair and pale grey eyes. And now that they weren’t fighting, Frank could see black, inky tattoos, traveling from the tops of his hands, swirling under and most likely continuing under his red top.

Maybe he was some sort of water sprite?

The girl standing next to him was wearing one of the strangest outfits Frank had seen. A grey suit that looked heavily protected covered her whole body, with black, steel rimmed boots. A yellow utility belt it looked like, and a black, raggedly ended cape swirled from her shoulders. The majority of her face was covered by a mask that let the eyes be seen, and it continued up to two little pointed ears. Her red hair matched the color of her lips, which were drawn in a slight frown. But the weirdest part of her outfit was the symbol emblazed on the front. Frank was pretty sure it was a bat.

 _Why a bat?_ Frank wondered to himself absentmindedly.

And then there was the Sunglasses guy, the only person not wearing some sort of costume. He was of average height, a lean but toned body and had inky black hair that was in a similar fashion of Percy’s. His eyes were covered by a pair of sunglasses, even though they were in a Cave. He had his feet propped up on the coffee table, his bag on the floor next to him, and a cup of coffee in one hand.

After he’d walked in, the ridiculously tense atmosphere had seemed evaporate into…just a tensed atmosphere.  It was a little better. He’d taken the situation completely stride, offering them tea and cookies while explaining that they were inside a cave in a mountain like they had been best buddies since third grade.

Frank wasn’t smart as Annabeth, though that didn’t mean he wasn’t perceptive. He would bet his money on this man being this group’s leader, and very capable in a fight.

But he didn’t get it. Frank had never met people with their abilities who weren’t either demigods or related to Greek or Roman mythology. There had to be some connection.

Not to mention the fact that it seem that just half an hour ago they were walking down a sidewalk towards a movie, and then they were charitably kidnapped by some white and blue strands of weird ribbon stuff and stranded in a cave full of weird people. If that didn’t constitute as weird, Frank didn’t know what did.

There was _a lot_ of weird going on. Or at least, more than usual. (Which is saying something.)

“So…” Percy cleared his throat, glancing around the room, his eyes settling on the Sunglasses dude.

There was an awkward moment of silence as the demigods and weird people looked at each other.

Frank was sure that both parties knew that the other could definitely be a threat. But unfortunately they had no way to tell just how much of a threat. _Fortunately_ for them though, neither did the weird people. …He hoped.

 “Well,” the Sunglasses Dude started, lifting his feet off of the coffee table, leaning forward. “Why don’t you start with how you all ended up here?” His posture was relaxed, but Frank knew he could afford to be. They were pretty badly outnumbered, and if the three new people fought like the others, than they were going to have one helluva time getting out of this mess.

Jason shifted, and Frank could tell Jason was pretty tense, his eyes darting around the room, the opposite of Percy, who looked pretty chill sipping his tea.

“First, can you answer me this,” Piper answered the question with one of her own, looking at him directly (as directly as she could with the dude wearing sunglasses). “Did you bring us here?” Her words were explicit, and Frank could tell she was using her chamspeak, albeit carefully.

The guy shook his head. “No.”

Piper and the other demigods glanced at each other.

“Um, okay. Do you know who we are?”

Again, the guy shook his head. “Never seen you before.”

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. “This had better not be another one of Hera’s _brilliant_ ideas on how to save the world again.” Her sarcasm was quite evident.

Percy tilted his head. “Not really her style, sending all of us together though _._ Maybe it was Zeus?” He suggested. Jason rolled his eyes.

The blonde girl with the gold ‘W’ frowned, stepping forwards. “Wait, what does my dad have to do with any of this?” She asked, bewildered.

“Your dad?” Frank and Jason said at the same time.

“Your dad, Zeus?” Jason asked again. “Your dad is Zeus?”

“What about it?” The teen with the domino mask asked evenly.

Leo groaned, looking at her. “Great,” he said. “This is probably because of you.”

“ _Me_?” She looked positively offended.

“What’s Ca-” The blue insect guy quickly corrected himself. “I mean, what does Wonder Girl have to do with any of this?”

“We’re probably here because Zeus was probably being a jerk, no offence Jace, and he didn’t claim you when you were thirteen, and that probably cause some sort of crisis, because when does it not, and and who knows what he’s gonna do-” Leo babbled off, losing Frank in a lengthy explanation of the idiocy and ridiculousness of the gods.

“Oo-kay.” The blue guy gave Leo a weird look.

“I…do not understand.” The Fish boy looked thoroughly confused.

Leo sighed. “Well, it goes like this-”

“Right now, that’s beside the point,” Annabeth interrupted, waving off his explanation. “We still don’t know if we can trust you or not. And I’m guessing you guys can’t trust us. Which means we’re probably not going to be leaving anytime soon. At least not until you can deem us to not be threats.”

“Point,” The man conceded. “We can’t let you leave until you tell us exactly what happened, who you are, and how you got here.” His tone was still light, but had a seriousness underlying it.

“But that’s _exactly_ the point,” Piper said.

“Wait, what’s the point?” Leo questioned before Piper could continue, glancing between the two.

 “I think she thinks that that’s beside the point.” The green kid added in. He looked over to Piper.  “Right?”

Piper frowned. “No. I mean, yes.”

Jason opened his mouth, then thinking better of it, closed it.

“Wait, what’s the point now?” The blonde girl asked.

 “That’s _not_ the point, as I said earlier,” Annabeth tried to clarify for Piper.

“Yeah, I’m not following.” Frank shook his head.

“And I’m totally lost as to what _is_ the point!” Leo threw his hands up in the air.

“Pyramids have points.” The shirtless dude said with a shrug.

“But they only have one point.” Nico remarked.

“Right now, I think everyone’s trying to make completely different points.” The masked kid noted.

The Sunglasses Dude laughed. “So I guess you just made a point.”

“ _This_ ,” the girl with the bat symbol said, making a motion as if to say ‘ _this conversation’,_ “is completely pointless.”

“So wait, if there is a point, but the point is that that’s not the point, which point are we talking about?” the Speed looked at them. “This is so not crash.”

“No _hermano_ ,” the blue insect guy shook his head. “That’s not what they’re talking about.” A pause. “Not it’s not. _No_ , it’s not!” He said, insisting to himself.

“Wait.” Percy blinked. “What?”

“Gods, everyone be quiet!” Piper demanded throwing her hands in the air, her charmspeak coming through.

Everyone did.

“Now, we need to figure out _what_ in Hades is going on here.” She said, placing her hands back down on her lap.

“Without any points,” Percy grinned. Piper just looked at him.

“Piper’s right,” Frank agreed. “We’re getting nowhere bickering like this.”

“Please then,” The fish boy spoke up. “Tell us how you got here, and who you are.” His tone was honest, and out of all them he seemed to Frank the most level headed.

“Or _what_ you are,” The speed kid muttered. The blue insect dude elbowed him in the side.

The eight demigods looked at each other, all of them finally looking to Percy and Jason.

Percy shrugged. “It can’t hurt. I mean, if they’re in league with Gaea, who’s hopefully still dead, or any other monster who wants us dead, it’s not like they don’t already know.”

“And they don’t seem like monsters.” Jason remarked. He turned to Piper. “’Sides, they’ve already given us an honest answer on the fact that they have no idea who we are.”

“Yeah, and they normally try to kill us first, not offer us tea and cookies like we’re in some English parlor.” Nico pointed out.

“True,” Hazel nodded.

They turned back to the weird people, who were looking at them with varied expressions.

“We’re demigods.” Percy said. “And how we got here…well. We were sorta hoping you knew.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

“Why don’t you start from the top,” Dick suggested after noticing how the confusion just seemed to keep growing with the answers the teens were giving them.

“It’s sorta a long story,” The girl- Piper, said. She looked slightly Native American, with beads and an eagle feather in her hair.

‘ _Red Tornado to Cave. Do you read me?’_ The teens jumped in their seats, some of them drawing weapons that had seemed to appear out of nowhere as the automated voice echoed through the Cave’s speakers.

“Acknowledged Red Tornado, this is Batgirl, we read you.” Batgirl answered, placing her hand on her comm., nodding to Dick saying _I’ve got this._

‘ _There is an incident downtown New York. The Injustice League have seventeen hostages holed up in the North Town Bank, and are stirring up quite a commotion.”_

As Red Tornado’s voice came through, a holographic screen opened up, showing visuals of the Bank, along with Poison Ivy and Ultra-Humanite (who was waving a gun around, spewing out bullets).

‘ _I am presume you have it handled.’_

“Whhhhaaatt…” Leo breathed. “That’s so freak ‘in awesome! A holographic computer? I want one!”

“Leo, not now.” Hazel chided.  

 Percy’s eyes widened, noticing the buildings on the screen, and his face seemed to pale.

“Copy that, Red Tornado. I’ll take a squad down and get it handled.” Batgirl assured. “Batgirl out.” The holographic screen disappeared as Batgirl turned to the younger superheroes.

The uninvited guests started relaxing, placing their weapons away.

“Wait, are you guys, like, a secret organization that helps people?” The blond guy asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Like _Mission Impossible_?”

Aqualad answered after a moment of thought. “I suppose we are something like that.”

“Okay, Wonder Girl, Blue, and Impulse, you’re with me.” Batgirl announced, nodding to Aqualad. She quirked an eyebrow at Dick.

_A 07 Situation?_

Dick grinned. _Most probably._

She mirrored his grin. _Have fun._

“Fill us in when we get back,” Blue Beetle nudged Beast Boy, who nodded.

Conner took a step forward.  

“Not a chance you two.” Batgirl didn’t bother turning around, answering Conner’s question before he got the chance to ask it. “You aren’t coming. And you, Bird Boy, need to get those ribs checked.”

Robin sighed. “Darn it.”

“Yeah.” Conner agreed.

Cassie smiled at Robin. “See ya soon.” She winked and walked past, joining Batgirl and the others.

“Good luck,” Aqualad offered with a knowing look.

“Time to kick some bad guy butt!” Impulse exclaimed before fading out, the zeta tubes announcing their departures.

“Uh…” the burly Asian teen looked back to Dick. “What just happened?”

“Yeah, and what’s with the names?”

Leo, as one of the girls had called him, shook his head. “Okay, I want one of those,” he pointed to the zeta tubes, “and one of those holographic screen thingies.”

The small black haired teen, who looked similar to a Goth raised an eyebrow. “I think we could use some explanations from _you_ , now.

“Right. We’ll get to those,” Dick said. “But first, tell me. Have you ever heard of The Justice League of America?”

The teens looked at each other, expressions of confusion on their faces.

“The _who_ of the _what_ now?”

“That sounds like the name of some cheesy organization,” Leo laughed.

“It’s a little better than ‘Mission Impossible’,” Conner shrugged.

“I don’t know man, I like those movie. And the show.”

“Superman? Wonder Woman? Batman?” Dick continued questioning, ignoring Leo and Conner’s little debate.  ‘No’s and more expressions of deepening confusion were the answer.

“ _Wonder Woman_?” The Asian teen repeated.

“ _Batman?”_ Another teen, the blonde girl echoed. She frowned. “Are, uh, Batgirl and Batman related?” She asked hesitantly.

“Eh, kind of.” Robin answered.

“Why are you asking?” The blond guy asked.

“You’re sure you’ve absolutely never heard of any of them?” Dick asked again.

“We’re positive. Why, who are they?” He repeated.

Dick nodded glancing over to Aqualad. “I thought so.”

“You believe it is a 07 Situation.” Aqualad’s question seemed more like a statement.

“Yup.” He popped the ‘P’.

“What’s a ’07 Situatuion’?”

Dick looked back at them with a grin. “Well, we think that you’ve been dropped in to a different universe.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

“A different world?” The petite African American girl echoed after a lapse of silence.

Conner shook his head. “Not a different world, a different universe.”

“The Multiverse…” The grey eyed girl blinked. She then turned to the black haired guy sitting next to her with a triumphant grin. “Okay, see? The things I talk about are actually quite useful.”

He grinned. “It would seem.”

“So you know of it then?” Robin asked her. “The Multiverses and whatnot?”

She frowned. “Not a whole ton, but I know the basic idea, and so do they.” She gestured to her friends.

“Yeah, we didn’t have a choice on that…” Piper joked. The grey eyed girl rolled her eyes.

“So, now we know where we are…somewhat,” The guy with the sea-green eyes said. “In a different universe. Great.” He groaned. “I guess the better question is how we got here, and how can we get back.”

“Maybe we should start with names.” Robin offered. “Before we hit the really confusing stuff.”

Dick nodded. “Sounds good.” He turned back to the teens. “I’m Nightwing.”

Leo frowned. “What’s a ‘nightwing’?”

“Only the coolest leader ever to run the Young Justice team.”

Aqualad smirked. “I believe that can be debated.” He turned back to the teens. “I am Aqualad, but please, call me Kaldur. This is Beast Boy, Superboy and Robin.” Aqualad introduced the other three, each giving nods or waves when their name was said.

“Dude, what kind of name system do you have in this world?”

Connor shrugged. “I’m Connor Kent, Superboy is just my alias. Same for Beast Boy.”

The green monkey-like kid gave a big smile. “I’m Garfield Logan. The other three that went with Batgirl are Blue Beetle, Wonder Girl and Impulse. You can probably guess which one is which.”

Leo nudged the sea-green eyed guy. “Blue Beetle.” He muttered. The guy shook his head.

“That’s just weird, man.”

“What about you two?” The Goth kid asked, motioning to Robin and Nightwing.

“Our names are…classified.” Dick answered after a pause. “So we just go by our alias. Same for Batgirl.”

“Okay then.” Piper said with a weird look. “Well, I’m Piper McLean, this is Jason Grace and Nico Di Angelo.” Piper introduced, waving at the blonde guy who was sitting next to her and the Goth looking kid.

“I’m Annabeth Chase,” Annabeth took up the introductions. “Percy Jackson-”

“Wassup?” Percy nodded.

“Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque.” Annabeth finished, motioning to the two who had remained mostly quiet during most of the conversations.

“Cool.” Nightwing said. “Now, before we get into all the other complicated matters, can you tell us _exactly_ how you got here?”

.

.

.


	4. Standing In Place

.

.

.

**Young and Bullet Proof**

_Chapter four: Standing In Place_

 

Piper McLean never thought she’d miss her crazy, life-threatening, usually-in-the-need-of-saving world. But after she and her friends unwillingly found themselves stranded in one that was similar, yet worlds different (pun intended) than their own, Piper was pretty sure they were all missing a little more than they thought they would.

The first day in a different universe was just…confusing.

Piper knew a little on the idea of the multi-verse, she was best friends with Annabeth, after all. But hearing about and actually experiencing it were two different feelings. Everything felt off. Like it was tweaked a little. Like the pillow you had slept on your whole life but now it felt slightly less soft. Apparently time also flowed differently between worlds, so there was no way to tell if any time would pass between the moment they left and when they would get back (they _had_ to). When they had first arrived, Piper had felt sick to her stomach, and so had everyone else, other than Percy. A fact that was making Piper feel uneasy. Usually when there was something weird happening to one of them, things went from bad to worse.

 _“Now, before we get into all the other complicated matters, can you tell me_ exactly _how you got here?”_ the Sunglasses guy-Nightwing, had asked.

And so they did, the story switching from demi-god to demi-god, everyone adding in different comments here and there. But in the end, the heroes got the picture, (and understood pretty clearly that Hera was just…the worst.)

“So you say you’re all demi-gods,” Nightwing tilted his head in interest. “Who are your godly parents?”

“Well, some of us are Greek, and the rest of us are Roman.” Percy supplied.

“So there’s two different kinds of deities in your universe?”

“Well, actually there are three, at least that we know of. I’ve met an Egyptian demi-god, but that’s a story for a different time.” Percy waved his hand.

“It’s like a person who has a split personality disorder,” Annabeth said, clarifying. “So sometimes the gods are Greek, like Zeus and Poseidon, other times their Jupiter and Neptune.”

“That sounds annoying.” Superboy grunted.

“You have no idea,” Jason shook his head.

“Especially when they’re at war with themselves.” Leo grumbled, “Like, we’re here trying to save the world and all, and of course it’s then that they decide to-”

“Anyways,” Piper cut in before Leo could start ranting, giving him a look. “I’m the daughter of Venus…the goddess of love.” It sounded lame when she said it out loud, but people underestimating her usually gave her the better hand. And love _is_ a powerful thing.

Jason gave her a smile. “I’m the son of Jupiter.”

Robin raised an eyebrow. “So you’re like Wonder Girl’s step brother once removed or something?”

Jason rubbed his neck. “I don’t know, man, bloodlines with the gods is really confusing.”

“I’m the son of Mars, uh, and Hazel is the daughter of Pluto.” Frank said, motioning to his girlfriend, who gave a small smile and wave.

“I’m the daughter of Athena,” Annabeth spoke up.

Kaldur frowned. “I do not recall Athena bearing children in the Greek myths.”

Percy waved his hand in a shooing manner. “Just don’t ask, dude. Trust me.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes.

“I’m the son of Poseidon, by the way.” Percy looked at Aqualad. “What about you?”

“A son of Poseidon?” Aqualad repeated with a friendly smile. “ _Kh_ _áíre*, Perseus._ ”

Percy’s eyes widened, then after he grinned, saluting back to Kaldur, responding in Atlantean.

There was a minute of just the two of them speaking, while the rest of the people in the room looked at the two boys who conversed in a language not understandable to them. Nightwing cleared his throat, smirking at Kaldur, reminding them that they were still figuring things out.

“I didn’t know you knew how to speak Atlantean,” Annabeth looked at her boyfriend. “I’m guessing that is Atlantean?” She said after a thought.

“I know right? It’s awesome.” Percy grinned.

“So wait,” Leo pointed to Kaldur, “you’re a son of Poseidon too?”

Kaldur shook his head. “I am not, but I come from the city of Atlantis.”

“I thought that was a myth?” Jason asked.

“Well, not in this universe,” Nightwing tacked on, patting Kaldur on the back.

“Okay, that, I’ve got to see,” Percy grinned. “Seriously.”

“I could stand a field trip to Atlantis,” Leo agreed. “Anywho, I’m the son of Hephaestus. And Nico over there is the son of Hades.”

“God of the dead?” Nightwing clarified.

Nico nodded. “God of the dead and Underworld.”

“That must be some dad.”

“You have no idea.”

“So do you guys have special powers? Like Wonder Girl?” Superboy asked, interested.

“Well, sorta, yeah. It’s more like a dumbed down version of what our godly parents have.” Percy answered with a shrug.

“What about your weapons? Where do those come from?” Batgirl said.

Piper took up the explanations, while everyone added in a comment or question here and there.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

When the younger heroes led by Batgirl returned, they hadn’t finished talking, both sides still explaining how their worlds functioned and the differences between them. There wasn’t complete trust between them, that was obvious, but it was also plain that neither of them were there to cause harm.

“What’s the plan now?” Jason asked after they had more or less finished talking, and the realization had dawned on them that they weren’t going to be able to return to their universe within the day. Or next few, from the look of it.

Aqualad, Nightwing, Batgirl had a quick conversation in a language that Piper had never heard, then turned back to their un-invited guests.

“Well, it looks like you’ll be staying here until this gets sorted out.” Nightwing finally said.

“’Stay here’?” Hazel repeated.

Batgirl nodded. “Yes. We don’t know what brought you here, and from dealing with past experiences, it’s going to take a while to figure out how to get you guys home.”

“Crash!” Impulse grinned. “New roomates-ish people!”

“Great.” Nico groaned.

It had been five days since the demi-gods had ending up in the cave of the Young Justice, a group of super-powered or incredibly skilled teens and young adults who operated alongside another group of super-powered or incredibly skilled adults, known as the Justice League. Piper was rather curious as to how all the politics worked out, with America having such a great advantage, and if the President of the United States could even control them. She doubted it.

Apparently, in this universe, saving the world was an every week occurrence. The young heroes were constantly going in and out of the cave, sometimes returning with a few scratches, or more serious injuries. Piper wondered why they did it, and had voiced her question to Wonder Girl, or Cassie, as she later learned her name was, two days after their impromptu arrival.

“You mean why do we risk our lives to help people?” Cassie rephrased Piper’s question as they sat in kitchen, ignoring the ruckus coming from the t.v. area, as some of the boys and Percy and Leo played some sort of video game.

“Yeah, take that baby! You just got Valdez-ed!”

“Leo, get off the couch.”

“Yeah,” Piper nodded.

Cassie thought for a moment, resting her chin on her hand. “Have you ever experienced something bad? Like _really_ bad. Or maybe woke up one day and realized you have these freaky but awesome powers?” Cassie asked, looking at Piper.

“Yes,” Piper answered to both questions.

“Well, most of here have had one or the other, some both.” Cassie said, her voice soft. “Some of us lost close family to cold blood murder, others of us have just been blessed and cursed with powers. And others have different origins. But anyways, we use them, the skills we have, or that emotion that we never want someone to experience the pain we’ve experienced. To save lives, even if it means we might lose our own…” Cassie trailed off as she thought briefly of the first Blue Beetle, Tula, Jason Todd, and all the others who had lost their lives in battle. She cleared her throat. “We’ve sorta formed a family, brothers and sisters in arms, sorta thing.” She said, shaking her thoughts of the fallen heroes from her mind.

 _That’s not too different from us…_ Piper thought. “That seems like a heavy burden. Do you ever wish you didn’t have it?”

Cassie laughed, lightening the mood a little. “Quite often, to tell you the truth. But it’s also a gift, you know? Like, I can help people, save them. And it feels awesome.” She smiled.

But both she and Piper knew the raw feeling that came when you _couldn’t_ save someone.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 “You want to go _inside_ our heads and _probe_ around?” Nico asked incredulously.

Leo gaped at the son of Hades. “Dude, out of everything she just said, _that’s_ what you got out? What about the part where she said she was _Martian_? Or the fact that aliens exist?”

The eight demi-gods, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Superboy were seated in the living room of the Cave while Miss Martian, who Nightwing had introduced to them a few minutes earlier, explained to the demi-gods what was going to happen.

The younger heroes were out, either at their respective homes or in school, while Aqualad had returned to Atlantis for the day.

Nico’s expression darkened. “I don’t appreciate someone raking through my mind and personal thoughts, _thank you very much_.”

 “Dude. She’s Martian.” Percy looked as equally astonished as Leo. “From Mars.”

“Yeah, I’m with Nico on this one,” Frank agreed a little queasily. “I don’t really want that either.”

“And I respect that,” Miss Martian looked at them honestly and unfazed by their looks of unbelief. “Your personal thoughts, feelings and memories are your own. I won’t breech that privacy.”

“Then, um, what are you planning to do?” Hazel asked.

“Think of it like a word search,” Nightwing explained, standing next to his Martian friend. “There’s a bunch of jumbled letters, in this case, your thoughts, and Miss M is just going to be searching for specific names among those thoughts. So she won’t touch anything else. If she finds a name, then she’ll see it.”

“Names?” Annabeth exchanged looks with her friends.

Batgirl nodded. “Names of our enemies, or anyone who would want to hurt us, or take over the world.”

“Well, couldn’t you just ask us if we knew them?” Piper asked.

“Not really,” Superboy said. “If you’ve been mined controlled, you might not have even noticed it. Or it could have been some sort of programming hidden in your subconscious.”

Piper blinked. “Oh.”

Miss Martian smiled. “A little confusing, I know. But if you feel me getting a little too close to something private, just think ‘stop’, and I will.”

The eight teens looked at each other then back to the young adult superheroes.

“Okay,” Percy agreed.

“Good. Just get comfortable and close your eyes. This will only take a few minutes.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

Miss Martian closed her eyes and extended her mind, entering the minds of the young teens in front of her. First with Hazel, proceeding slowly and searching for anything that could possibly make then enemies. Next was Frank, then Jason, and Nico.

She stumbled a little on Nico. There was something…off with him. She frowned and pushed a little deeper, carefully sifting through his mind.

 _Oh,_ she thought as she realized what it was. Unlike the other three, he knew how to block a telepath from his mind. His thoughts, feelings, and memories were all in little boxes, locked up carefully. There was no way she would have been able to open them without him knowing. Someone must have taught him how. But there was something else…a feeling that was much more prominent. It was a feeling that M’gann and many other heroes had experienced before, or had glimpsed as they came close to it; death.

Nico was the son of the death god, after all. But still…his powers seemed…stronger than the others. M’gann pulled away and moved on, to Annabeth, then Piper, Leo and lastly Percy.

Unlike Nico, however, they’re minds were much less protected, and M’gann could feel some of their emotions; fear, confusion, happiness, sadness, love, loss and frustration. Even some of their memories flew in front of her eyes…faces and voices taking shape than being blown away like mist.

_A half-blood of the eldest gods, shall reach sixteen against the odds…_

_Luke Castellan._

_And see the world in endless sleep, the hero’s soul, cursed blade shall reap…_

_Kronos._

_Manhattan._

_A single choice shall end his days, Olympus to preserve or raze._

_“Bring it on, Pinecone Face!”_

_Thalia Grace._

_Bekendorf. Selina._

Wars, battles, titans, gods…

_Seven half-bloods shall answer the call, to storm or fire the world must fall…_

Gaea.

_An oath to keep with a final breath, and foes bear arms to the doors of death._

_“It’s none of your business, but I don’t belong. That’s obvious. No one wants me. I’m a child of –”  
“Oh, please. Nobody at Camp Half-Blood ever pushed you away. You have friends.”_

_“Legion,_ cuneum formate _! Advance!”_ _  
“Greeks! Let’s, um, fight stuff!”_

_“I control the shadows. They do not control me.”_

_Tartarus._

_“He only helped us in Tartarus because you were kind to him. You told him we were worth saving. That’s the only reason we’re alive.”_

_“Complaining of unfairness is like assigning blame, Percy Jackson. It does no one any good.”_

_“Your voice is your identity. If you don’t use it, you’re halfway to Asphodel already.”_

_“Oh, I wouldn't say Love always makes you happy. Sometimes it makes you incredibly sad.”_

M’gann gently pushed away the thoughts, breathing deeply, focusing on her task, sending out whispers and looking for recognition.

_The Light. The Injustice League. Lex Luthor. Darkseid. Klarion. The Joker. Professor Zoom. Amazo. Professor Ivo. Toy Man. Blockbuster. Ra’s Al Ghul._

The list kept going, until M’gann was certain that these eight young teens had no clue what happened, and that none of their villains had put them up for this.

Slowly, she opened her eyes, bringing them all out of the trance.

“Wow.” Leo blinked.

“Yeah.” Percy agreed.

“That was weird.” Nico added.

“Well?” Annabeth asked Miss Martian, who was looking at the other members of the Young Justice. “Anything?”

Miss Martian shook her head. “Nope, nothing. You guys are clean. From what I can tell, it wasn’t one of our villains that brought you here.”

“So that gets us nowhere.” Piper sighed. “What next?”

“Do you think it was one of the gods? Maybe Hera?” Jason suggested.

“Sending us into different universes? Can they even do that?” Frank wondered.

Annabeth shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“It could have been just a glitch in the multiverse,” Batgirl supplied. “That’s happened before. But I’m going to contact Zatana, see if she can get back on world and if she can find any traces of magic or spells.”

Hazel blinked. “Magic…that reminds me…the, uh, thing that took us. It felt like magic. At least I think I did. I’ve never experienced the multi-verse, though. So it could have been that.”

Nightwing’s eyes narrowed behind his mask. “Are you sure?”

Hazel squeezed her eyes shut. “I think so? I’m sorry, it’s all fuzzy.”

Frank place a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Take your time.”

“It…it wanted Percy.” She opened her eyes at looked at her friend. “It was after you.”

Percy groaned. “Great.”

“What did you do this time, Water Boy?” Leo quirked an eyebrow.

“Shut up. For all we know it was probably _you_.”

“Maybe that’s why you didn’t feel sick when we first got here,” Piper said as realization dawned on her. “We just got pulled along for the ride.”

Percy made a face that said _I-am-taking-a-three-hundred-year-long-vacation-when-I-get-back._

“Well, at least that gives us a start.” Nightwing ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, you guys just sit tight here.” He turned to Superboy and Batgirl. “I’m going to check in with Doctor Fate in case Zee can’t get back within the next few days. Superboy, Miss M, go ahead and help them get settled in. Show them the ropes. Batgirl?”

“I’ll contact Zee then the JLA, see if anyone there knows anything.” Batgirl affirmed.

Nightwing nodded. “Alright. SB, tell the kids to go through the drill five times, and ready in gear. We’ll be doing some sparring when I get back.”

Superboy nodded. “You got it.”

“Great. See you guys soon.” He and Batgirl exited the Cave, the zeta tubes announcing their departures.

“Come on guys,” Miss Martian said cheerily. “I’ll give you a tour of the cave!”

                                                                                              

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

“It goes like this!”

“No, _hermano_ , it goes across first and then over. See?”

“Oh. Hehe.”

“Uh,” Frank looked at the protective gear he was wearing, covering him from head to toe. “Do you really think all this is necessary?”

Blue Beetle and Impulse, who were helping the son of Mars put it on, paused to answer his question.

Impulse grinned. “Trust me, it is.”

“Yeah, but don’t worry, usually the only thing that gets hurt is our pride,” Blue Beetle joked. A pause. “Yes it is. “Yes it is!”

“Uhh…” Frank looked at him.

“Don’t mind Blue, his suit has an attitude of its own.” Impulse supplied as if that made complete sense. 

“Hey Impulse!” Gar scampered up to them, taking the form of a rabbit. “D’you know if KF and Artemis are going to show up?”

“I heard that they will be,” Cassie grinned, coming up next to him. “And possibly Black Canary.”

“Are they members of the, uh, Justice League?” Frank asked.

Robin, who standing beside Impulse, shook his head. “Black Canary is, but KF and Artemis aren’t. They’re more like retired members of the Young Justice, but they still help out here and there.”

“Alright everyone,” Nightwing called, surveying training room with a grin. He examined the Young Justice heroes and demi-gods who were all prepped in sparring gear or their uniforms. He stepped up to the mat, the computer activating the score board. “Who’s up first?”

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy guys! How’s life? :D One of the best ways to take a break? LOTR marathon!! :’] Hehe, Sorry for the wait! I got caught up in a book…it was really, really good, can’t wait for the next! But anywho, hopefully you’ll enjoy this chap ;)   
> Ohmygersh. This chapter…it felt like squeezing the last bit of toothpaste from a toothpaste bottle. Y’know? Like, ugh. I’m not all that happy with it /.\ Still too many characters…and I’m going to be bringing even more in. And some more shipping…Ah, c’est la vie. Again, sorry for the OOCness :o  
> Oh, quick note on the Atlantean. I read that in the show the language of Atlantis is actually ancient Greek, so that’s what I used. Now, normally the Greek demi-gods would have no prob understanding that, but for the sake of this story, let’s just pretend it’s Atlantean and not ancient Greek :p


	5. Further Discoveries

.

.

.

 

**Young and Bullet Proof**

_Chapter five: Further Discoveries_

 

**(\M/)**

**\/**

_“Alright everyone,” Nightwing called, surveying training room with a grin. He examined the Young Justice heroes and demi-gods who were all prepped in sparring gear or their uniforms. He stepped up to the mat, the computer activating the score board. “Who’s up first?”_

 

 

**(\M/)**

**\/**

_Ten minutes before…_

“Well, we don’t have anything to worry about.” Miss Martian smiled. She and Nightwing, Batgirl, Kaldur, Artemis, Wally and Superboy were seated inside one of the lounge rooms, using its privacy to have their conversation.

“They’re not threats, at least not to us.”

“There wasn’t anything in their heads that worried?” Superboy asked.

“No,” She said slowly as she remembered what she had felt. “I think they’ve all gone through a lot, I sensed a lot of sadness and heartache. But from what I could tell, they’re good kids.”

Nightwing ran a hand through his hair. “Well, at least that one less thing that needs to be worried about.”

“Does the League know anything?” Kaldur asked, looking around the room.

“We’ve informed them of our…situation,” Batgirl said, “but they don’t have anything. Batman’s looking into a few other possibilities, but for, nothing.”

Wally shook his head. “Still, this doesn’t make much sense. Eight demigods- powerful ones, according to Miss M- just get randomly pulled into a different multi-verse, and there’s absolutely no ulterior motive by some whacked out villain? Since when does that happen?” He and Artemis had been caught up on the situation by Nightwing, who had asked them join the meeting as Wally was more than familiar with being sucked into different multiverses.

Artemis frowned. “It doesn’t. At least not with us. What do you guys plan on doing now?”

“Well, since both Zee and Doctor Fate are off world right now, not much.” Batgirl said. “Until they get back things will probably keep going as they have been.”

“We know they’re not threats, that’s for sure,” Miss M confirmed again. “If anything, they’re a lot like us. A group of kids who have powers and fight alongside their parents, saving the world.” She smiled. “Like us.”

“I do believe that for now, things will continue as they have been,” Kaldur said, receiving nods of approval from his teammates. “We will just have to wait until Doctor Fate and Zatana return.”

“Do we know when they’ll be back?” Superboy asked and received a negative response.

“I’m guessing within the week, but there’s no way to be sure.” Batgirl said with a shake of her head.

“What about you, Kal?” Artemis asked her friend. “You have some knowledge of magic, right? Did you sense anything?”

Kaldur shook his head. “I did not. But my knowledge of the mystic arts is far less than that of Doctor Fate’s or Zatana’s.”

Miss Martian tapped her cheek. “Do you think it could be some hiccup in the multiverse stream?” She asked. “It happened with Wally.”

“I don’t know,” Wally replied with a dubious look on his face. “Not only was the Speed Force causing a discrepancy but the world I got sucked into was messing with some world teleportation stuff already. So even then it wasn’t just some random event.”

 “Alright. We’ll figure that out when we get there.” Nightwing said as Artemis, Wally and Miss M stood up from their chairs. “We let each other know if anything comes up.”

Bargirl nodded. “Sounds good.”

Nightwing turned back to Wally and Artemis. “You guys wanna stay for the sparring session?” He asked with his trademark smirk.

“I wish,” Artemis grinned, “but I promised Roy and Cheshire that’d I watch Lian for them while they finish up some…work.”

Miss Martian laughed. “Aw, that sounds like fun! I need to go help Uncle J’onn, sorry ‘Wing.”

“Yeah, I promised Ma I’d help fix the roof,” Superboy added.

Nightwing waved it off. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll let you know how it goes.” He smiled.

“Alright, I’m heading off now,” Artemis said as she, Miss M, Batgirl and Superboy made their way towards the door. “You coming, babe?” She asked Wally.

He stuck his hands in his jean’s pockets. “Yeah, I’ll be right there.”

Kaldur look at his childhood friends with a smile as he placed a hand on each of their shoulders. “King Orin expects me back at Atlantis, but I shall return shortly. It was good seeing you both again.”

Wally grinned. “Yeah, us three should kidnap Roy and hang out for a little bit.”

“Roy would love that.” Kaldur said seriously, a twinkle in his eyes. “I propose we use a bag and stuff him into it without his knowledge. The old fashion way.”

Nightwing laughed. “I like that plan. See you soon, Kal.”

Artemis raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend and sent him a knowing look. “Kay, I’m heading back to Central,” She said.

“Be there in a Flash!”

 Artemis just rolled her eyes as they excited the room, leaving Nightwing and Wally, who flopped back down on one of the futons.

Nightwing look at his friend. “What’s up?”

Wally raised an eyebrow. “I should be asking you that.”

“What do you mean?”

Wally rolled his eyes. “Dick, I’m your best friend. You think I can’t tell when you haven’t slept for the past, what, three days?”

Nightwing was silent for a while before he let out a heavy sigh and sat down on the other futon, relaxing his tensed shoulders a bit.

“Things have just been pretty hectic lately. And just…a little tense at Gotham right now.

“I thought most of that had gotten, um, resolved?” Wally asked quietly.

“It has, well, that part at least.” Nightwing answered.

“Is it Bruce?”

“Bruce? Oh, no, no. We’re doing fine, although Alfred’s getting annoyed with him because he’s insisting on keeping a coffee maker in his room.” Nightwing answered with a strained grin.

“Ah, but no one opposes Alfred.” Wally ‘tsk’ed.

“Everyone knows it.” Nightwing agreed.

Wally looked back at this friend. “Then what’s up?”

Nightwing scrubbed a hand down his face, removing his mask to reveal tired blue eyes. “It’s just there’s all that along with all the usual crap, then all this with eight new teenagers, and Ra’s is starting to be a creepy perv again.” Dick growled out the last part, and Wally winced.

“When is that man not?” He knew how creepy Ra’s could be, remembering some of Dick’s encounters with the man back when he was Robin. “What’s he doing this time?”

Dick took a calming breath. “He’s been monitoring some of Timmy’s activities and whereabouts. Not all the time, but it’s got me on edge. I’ve caught several of his assassins trailing Timmy.” The look in Dick’s eye told Wally that he was beyond ticked.

Wally stared at his friend. “That’s...not good.”

“Yeah.” He ran a hand through his hair again. “Thankfully with Barbra, Bruce and I keeping an eye out, things are more secure, and we’ve notified a couple others. But still, I don’t like it when Timmy’s out without someone watching his back.”

Wally nodded. While they both knew Tim was expertly trained to hold his own, past events and dealing with the Demon’s Head was enough to make anyone extra cautious. “Do you think he might have a part in this?” Wally asked with wave of his hand, as if to say ‘ _eight more responsibilities randomly showing up’._

Dick groaned. “At this point, everyone’s a possibility. The only ones we can rule out are those safely locked up right now, but even then that leaves us with a long list. And it could even be some villain on their end.”

“Oh, yeah.” Wally remembered. “Does Tim know about all that?” He asked, returning to their original conversation.

Dick shook his head. “No. We don’t want to worry him, he’s got enough on his plate.”

Wally gave his friend an exasperated sigh. With Dick, all thoughts of self-preservation flew out the window when it came to protecting his little brothers or family.

“Then you’d better take care of yourself, Dick. Because Tim’s smart and perceptive. He notices when you’re off or pushing yourself to hard, and _that_ makes him worry.” Wally reasoned. “And when I say ‘take care of yourself’, I mean get six hours of sleep and three decent meals. Relax a little, too.” He added as an afterthought. “But getting benched by Bruce or Alf again for overworking yourself is definitely not going to put Tim at ease.”

Dick blinked and looked over at this friend as he registered Wally’s words. “And since when have you been that intelligent?” He joked.

Wally rolled his eyes but grinned, glad that the mood was lightened a bit. “Ha. Ha. I’ve always been this smart and handsome. It’s my cross to bear.” Wally sighed dramatically.

Dick laughed. “Smart? Sure, are we talking about the same guy who ran into the ladies restroom and caused an uproar?” He snickered.

“Dude, that was one time, and only because we were running from Bruce after he found out that we spiked the punch at that charity event. It was the quickest hiding place available.” Wally defended himself half-heartedly. “I only went to that thing because you begged me to.”

They both cracked up a little, remembering the scandal.

“But seriously though,” Wally said, “you need to take better care of yourself.” He gave his friend a serious stare, making sure Dick completely understood him. (The Batclan seemed to have a problem with fully grasping the concept of those words, Wally had come to realize.)

“Yeah,” Dick smiled a little. “Ten-four.”

“Good.” Wally nodded. There was a moment of silence before he spoke again. “Do you think you and Tim would want to come over for dinner sometime? Aunt Iris will cook.” He waggled his eyebrows as Dick snorted.

“Is that even a question? Aunt Iris’ cooking is like the female version of Alfred’s. And she can keep Uncle Barry out of the kitchen so that we actually have food for dinner.”

Wally nodded sagely. “He won’t dare go near it while Aunt Iris has a wooden spoon in her hands. And neither would Bart.”

Dick grinned as he and Wally stood up, and placed his mask on his face, concealing his eyes once more.

“We’ll take you up on that offer.”

“Good.” Wally stretch and arm over his head, and made his over towards the door.

“Wally?” His friend asked as he turned back.

Dick smiled. “Thanks.”

“Anytime, ‘Wing. Anytime.”

 

 

**(\M/)**

**\/**

_Ten minutes later…_

 

“So…I don’t get it.” Impulse looked around confused as Nico lost again in the first few minutes of his fight with Batgirl. “How are you guys still alive if you can’t even fight?”

“ _Impulse_.” Batgirl reprimanded, giving the resident speedster a small Batglare, but their visitors didn’t look too offended.

The younger heroes- Impulse, Beast Boy and Blue Beetle were with Batgirl and Nightwing, who were supervising the sparring, and the eight demigods.

 Robin and Cassie had had to leave shortly after the match between Robin and Jason, which had taken place some ten minutes after the sparring session began. It had ended in Robin’s win, and he and Cassie had left to assist Wonder Woman and Batman on a diplomatic mission shortly afterwards.

(Cassie had assured the demigods that Wonder Woman was an Amazon, and no, she didn’t work for the company.)

The others had sparred with the heroes, but most of the wins weren’t in their favor.

“Let’s just say what we do requires a…different set of skills.” Annabeth said slowly. When the others stared at her blankly she clarified. “It’s not that we can’t hold our own at hand-to-hand combat, because we can. You guys just excel at it because you have to. The monsters we face are just that – monsters. We never fight actual people.”

Gar nodded. “That makes sense.”

“Well, she is a daughter of Athena, the goddess of wisdom.” Frank said.

“Wait, you never fight just plain people? Never ever?” Impulse inquired and Annabeth shook her head.

“In fact, in our world, no one can even see the monsters were facing. It’s called the mist, and to make it really simple, it fools anyone who isn’t somehow connected to the gods. So we don’t get in situations like these.” She gestured to the mat. “We all have powers and weapons and know how to use them. But when we fight it’s just…different.” She shrugged her shoulders not sure how to explain it.

“We use the gifts given to us by our parents to fight unearthly fights. Different strengths needed.” Jason added.

“Gifts…or curses.” Nico muttered as he rejoined them.

“What’s up with him?” Impulse asked as Nico continued his way to where bottles of water lied.

“Nico’s had it…harsh.” Hazel said quietly.

“But don’t worry, he’s not usually that grouchy,” Annabeth added. She winked. “Spending time with the dead can do that to you.”

She ignored Nico who snorted, but was glad to see a small grin on his face.

“So what are your powers?” Blue beetle joined the conversation. Annabeth looked over where Piper and Leo were talking with Nightwing and Percy. She gave a rueful smile as she turned back to the boy.

“My power is far less glamorous than some of my friends.” She said simply, not sure saying ‘ _I have the gift of being really smart’_ would come out right.

“So you guys _can_ actually you hold your own in a fight?” Impulse’s statement came out more like a question. Batgirl gave an exasperated sigh at his lack of tactfulness, but Annabeth and Jason both chuckled softly.

“Yeah, we like to think so. And some of us…well, let’s just say even your villains might have a tough time.” Jason said with a glance in Percy’s direction. Impulse seemed to connect the dots and once again got excited.

“Alright! Now we have a fight worth seeing!” he exclaimed as Annabeth and Jason looked at each other confused. Just as Batgirl said “imp-” he was already in front of Nightwing and Percy, arms flying all over the place as he spoke at an extremely rapid pace. Percy glanced over at Annabeth with a strange expression and she could only shrug her shoulders, still confused.

Nightwing laughed and turned to Percy, asking him a question. Percy looked hesitant but nodded slowly and the captain of the Young Justice spoke into his comm.

“Uh, what’s going on?” Leo asked. Blue Beetle sighed.

“Impulse is probably begging for a match between…oh Percy, and Kaldur.” He sighed.

“Well, this should be interesting.” Nico said suddenly, right next to Annabeth. A small smile played at his lips as they all made their way towards the ring, excited for the upcoming match.

 Percy walked over to his friends with a raised eyebrow.

“What’s this about ‘Percy being able to terrify any and everything that comes in his way’?” He asked, his sea green eyes a bit incredulous. His girlfriend snorted.

“First it wasn’t me who said anything, so you can thank Jason for that, and second I think this Impulse kid has a tendency to exaggerate a bit.” Annabeth laughed.

“Great, now what am I supposed to do?” Percy groaned, and a small slightly wicked grin appeared on Annabeth’s face.

“I guess the only thing to is for my boyfriend to show these heroes what the son of Poseidon can actually do.” She said and he sighed.

“Sure, should I destroy the whole cave, or just half?” he asked sarcastically although he couldn’t help but grin.

“Save the kitchen and t.v. room or Leo is gonna have a fit.” She simply answered. He chuckled and placed a kiss on her cheek.

“Fine, but I might have to lose this one. I’m not used to fighting…another version of me,” he mused.

“You’ll be fine.” She said before shoving him toward the ring.

Kaldur had arrived via the Zeta Tube and was sporting the same look of preservation on his face that Percy did.

“Great,” Leo piped up as he sat down next to the group, “two guys that don’t really want to go at it. This is gonna be the most polite fight we’ll ever see.” He said and Hazel laughed.

“I think Percy can take him.” Frank added.

“Kaldur knows his stuff, though.” Gar said, crouching down next to him. “He’s trained with Atlanteans and has years of experience. My bet is on Kaldur.”

“Please tell me you guys aren’t actually going to place bets?” Piper eyed the two boys who faked innocent expressions.

 “Then this will be an interesting match.” Leo grinned as they turned their attention to what was taking place on the mats.

Nightwing tapped a screen, beginning the match as Percy and Kaldur faced off, both assessing each other while moving in a slow circle.

Trained eyes calculated their opponents on both ends, and for the first few seconds they didn’t engage in combat.

Then Kaldur threw a kick which Percy dodged, tucking in and sending one of his own back at the Atlantean. Kaldur smoothly stepped back, rolling to the side and threw a punch, spinning behind Percy and throwing a back-fist.

 _He’s much stronger than he looks,_  Percy immediately noted when he blocked an oncoming swing. _Does he super-strength?_  

But the notion didn’t bother him, he’d taken on stronger opponents before.

Much stronger. And with a god complex.

“You know, if we wanted to watch a boring fight we could find that on youtube!” Leo hollered after a few minutes of them just exchanging blows.

“Yeah!” Impulse agreed.

“Come on Percy – show ‘em why even Ares won’t fight you!”

“Ares will  _always_ want to fight me.” Percy called back, the distraction allowing Kaldur to land a kick that had Percy flying. _I don’t think that’s even at full power,_ Percy thought and tucked into a roll. He instinctively called for water which came from the water bottles, causing them to explode as the water rushed to his command. As he landed from the blow, he shot it at Kaldur, who stopped it with a blast from his own Water Bearers.

“ _Now_ this is getting good.” Impulse could be heard from the sidelines, followed by a “really, hermano?” from Blue Beetle, but the two occupying everyone’s attention kept focus on the fight at hand.

Kaldur shot water out, dousing Percy, who allowed the water to move around him, coming out of it completely dry.

Kaldur’s eyes widened in shock, but quickly focused again as Percy raised the water into a mini typhoon and shot it straight at the Young Justice member. Slicing through it with one of his Water Bearers formed as a sword, he attacked, combining both water and hand-to-hand combat. Percy was slowly backing up, being forced back by the intensity of Kaldur’s attack. Kaldur’s tattoos glowed with an ethereal light as the water Percy had previously been controlling circled around him, forming what looked like a giant shark made out of water. It charged at Percy, who slipped back a bit at the intensity of it, but spread out his hands and a brief moment calmed the water, letting it slide around him. After getting hit square in the chest by a side kick, Percy started to relax a bit.

Calling Riptide out of his pocket, he could once more see he surprise on Kaldur’s face. He gave the other guy a wink as he uncapped the seemingly innocent item and then rushed at him as the pen turned into a wicked sharp sword. Shouts of alarm could be heard from the bystanders, but he trusted Annabeth to handle them.

 _Riptide can’t actually hurt him…although he doesn’t know that,_ Percy thought to himself _. But it’ll at least give me a chance to surprise him._ He swung the sword expertly then stopped in shock when it sliced Kaldur on the shoulder, and was blasted across the room as he didn’t bother to block the oncoming wave.

Chaos ensued for a few moments as everyone was up and center.

“What in the world do you think you were doing?” and “That’s not supposed to happen!” all rang out.

“Enough!” Nightwing quieted everyone down. He looked at Percy who was picking himself up, still shocked. “That was a sparring match. We don’t use weapons in sparring matches.” He said icily.

“I’m sorry-” Percy began.

“It actually got him.” Nico was inspecting the cut on Kaldur’s shoulder.

“Of course it did, it’s a SWORD!” Impulse practically shouted.

“Are you okay, Kaldur?” Batgirl asked, helping the Atlantean to his feet.

“Yes, thank you. My friends, please, calm yourselves.” Kaldur tried to say over the voices that were beginning to raise again. He place a hand over the cut, but he didn’t look too affected by it.

“Everyone, quiet down.” Something in the way Piper said it brought a calmness to the room.

The heroes and demigods were silent for a moment before Leo grinned.

“Dude.” Leo finally said.

“That was crash!” Impulse added.

Nightwing turned back to Percy.

“Want to explain what you were thinking?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. Percy grinned ruefully.

“Sorry, it’s just that…that shouldn’t have happened.” He held out his hands to stop the questions and remarks. “I’m serious. Riptide should have phased through Kaldur without actually touching him.”

“Like, density shifting?” Blue Beetle asked. “Can a sword even do that?” He paused. “Well, maybe one could. No its not!” Blue Beetle insisted. Impulse sped over and elbowed his friend in the side.

“Oh,” he said at everyone’s glances. “Sorry.”

“Our weapons only work on monsters.” Annabeth clarified.

“Not that you’re a monster.” Hazel hastily added, “That’s why we were shocked. It  _only_ works on, eh, those that come from…different origins?” she looked to Frank and Leo for help.

“Godly origins?” Frank offered.

“Pretty much, Riptide has never actually touched anyone human, or people not from some sort of godly decent. I’ve never killed anyone – none of us do. We just dispersed monsters back to Hades.” Percy continued to explain.

“So, then why did it touch Kaldur?” Nightwing mused. Annabeth then stepped in.

“Percy, bring out Riptide again.” She said with a thoughtful look on her face. Percy reached back into his pocket and pulled out the pen, making sure there was space before uncapping it. 

“Woa, that’s so cool!” Gar said excitedly. “It’s a pen, then a sword!”

Percy grinned at him. “I know, right?”

“Perce, place it against Kaldur, just the hilt.” Annabeth instructed.

Percy walked over, hilt first and reached it out towards Kaldur.

“It’s touching him,” Jason said with wide eyes. Kaldur ran a hand over the metal, admiring the craftsmanship. Nightwing walked over, touching the sword as well.

“So normal humans can touch it to.” Piper observed.

“Yeah, that’s not supposed to happen.” Leo repeated.

Percy frowned. “Why can she do that?”

“She?” Impulse asked, confused.

“The sword,” Blue Beetle clarified.

“I think it’s because you’re in a different universe,” Nightwing said as they turned to him.

“The multiverse can do a lot of things, but the biggest? Drag people from their universe to a completely different one. However, once that happens, people will either experience physical or emotional differences or changes.”

“Like feeling pressure underwater through your ears, or the loss of gravity in space,” Batgirl tacked on, placing a bandage on Kaldur’s shoulder.

“As Hazel said before, you all, except Percy, felt sick after landing here.” Nightwing continued. “I’m guessing your bodies were adjusting to the change. Your weapons probably didn’t. Obviously, things in your universe doesn’t work the same way here. So while your weapons in your universe could only effect something or someone linked with the gods, in this universe, it’s affective on monsters, meta-humans and humans.”

“So, what about our powers?” Hazel questioned.

Nightwing pursed his lips. “I’m not sure about that. Since they’re part of you, physically, I’m guessing the only changes we’ll see in those are a lack of power in them. But since you guys adjusted really quickly, I’m guessing the change will only be minimal.”

Annabeth nodded. “That makes sense.”

“Great,” Percy said, “that means we’ve got to be extra careful with our weapons.”

“Seems like it,” Jason agreed.

‘ _Robin-B04, Wonder Girl-B05, Superboy-B06.’_ The Zeta tube announced as it whirled to life. A few seconds later, the heroes walked into the cave.

“How’d it go?” Batgirl asked them.

Cassie grinned. “It went great! For the first time, we didn’t have to kick everyone’s butts! It actually seemed like a diplomatic mission.”

Connor looked at them. “I just fixed a roof.” He said simply.

“What happened here?” Robin asked, surveying the Cave.

“Percy and Kaldur had an epic fight!” Impulse exclaimed.

“It wasn’t that big,” Percy said hastily at their interested looks.

“But then he tried to stab Kaldur!”

“Wait, that’s not what happened!” Percy spluttered, offended.

“And his sword can density shift!”

“Now you’re changing the whole story!”

“But it was a pretty neat fight,” Hazel agreed, interrupting the two boys.

“Alright team,” Nightwing said with a clap of his hands to get their attention. “Good job! We’ll continue working on combat training tomorrow, after an evaluation of todays. So go ahead and hit the showers and-”

The first Robin was interrupted by an alarm that sounded throughout the Cave as several holographic screens opened up.

“Black Canary to the Cave.” One of the screens, bigger than the rest opened up in the middle of the room, as the woman’s face appeared, her blonde hair swept over one shoulder.

“Cave to Black Canary,” Nightwing responded, as he and Robin wasted no time going into ‘mission mode’, and started examining the screens and tapping them. “What’s the situation?”

“Down Town Happy Harbor and Pennsylvania have had simultaneous gang wars erupt.” Black Canary said as the screens displayed what she was describing. “They’ve been exposed or induced with something as their behavior is completely abnormal, quite of few of them dropping to the ground either unconscious or screaming. However, there are reports and sightings of monsters terrorizing the streets and several have been confirmed to be that of Greek origin.”

“Oh boy,” Frank said as he looked at one of the screens. On it showed Happy Harbor, with not only crazed people running around rampant and some serious property damage taking place, but also several Gorgons.

“Gorgons.” Nico said with a groan.

Nightwing frowned. “I haven’t seen those before.”

“You just gatta love ‘em.” Percy said sarcastically.

“Wait,” Annabeth stepped forward, “how can they see them?”

Blue Beetle looked at her. “Um, how can they not?”

“No, I mean, why isn’t the mist working?”

“The missed?” Beast Boy questioned.

“No, mist- M. I. S. T. It’s what conceals this from normal humans.” Hazel correct.

Robin glanced at her. “The mist probably doesn’t exist here,” he explained with a thoughtful look on his face. “You’re in a different universe after all.”

“Uh, better question: how did they get here?” Leo asked.

“We’ll figure that out later,” Nightwing interrupted. “Anything else?”

“Metropolis is just now reporting a similar situation,” Robin announced as he pulled up a visual feed. “Both at East End and Central Square.”

“You guys will need to handle this one,” Black Canary said grimly. “Most of the Justice Leaguers are engaged in combat with some evil alien warlord. Those that aren’t will join you.”

Robin sighed as Cassie humphed. “Of course it’s after we leave that the _diplomatic_ part flies out the window.” She pouted. “And I bet you that they probably literally threw the diplomat out the window.”

There was a ‘ _beep_ ’ and a smaller screen opened up below Black Canary’s showing Captain Marvel.

“Captain Marvel to Cave.” He said, the feed ‘ _frtizing_ ’ for a second before it came back into focus. “Guardian, Bumble Bee, Static and I are on our way back from Vladivostok on League business. Our mission was a success and we’re on route to join you.”

“Do you need coordinates?” Kaldur asked.

Captain Marvel shook his head. “We’ve received them from Black Canary.” He smiled brightly, the way only Captain Marvel could with the prospect of fighting Greek monsters. “We’re heading over to them now.”

“Good.” Kaldur said. “We appreciate the backup.”

The screen froze for a second as the connection dropped but came back on. “ETA: Ten minutes. Captain Marvel out.” Captain Marvel said before the screen disappeared.

“We’re on our way,” Batgirl responded to Black Canary.

Black Canary nodded. “Good luck.” She said as the screen closed.

“’Evil alien warlord?’” Leo asked, “Seriously?” Robin shrugged.

“Don’t you guys face a crazy lady who can turn you to stone if you look at her in the eyes?”

“Point taken.”

“Nightwing, you need to let us go with you.” Annabeth said firmly. “Only Imperial Gold or Celestial Bronze can touch those monsters, and we have that.”

“We’ve also taken down titans and the Mother Earth herself.” Jason added. “We know how to fight them.”

Nightwing glance at Batgirl and Kaldur. “Alright, but there aren’t only monsters out there. There are people, several of whom have been exposed to toxins while getting caught in the crossfire.”

“We know.” Percy said. There was a gleam in his eyes, and something told Nightwing that reminded him uncomfortably of Jason- and not the one standing in the room.

“Good.” Nightwing turned back to address everyone in the cave. “Our main objective, figure out what’s controlling the abnormal behavior, and get those under it and the civilians to safety. Then take out the monsters as quickly as possible. Alpha Squad- that’s Aqualad, Impulse, Nico, and Annabeth. Your mission; Pennsylvania. You have the Bio-Ship.” Nightwing instructed. “Aqualad, your Field Leader.”

“Understood.” Kaldur nodded.

“Batgirl, Hazel, Jason, and Blue Beetle, your Beta. You’re taking Metropolis East End. Batgirl is Field Leader. Take the Super-Cycle.”

“Got it,” Batgirl said.

Nightwing tapped a few other screens. “Omega Squad- Superboy, Leo, Beast Boy and Frank you have Metropolis Central Park. Superboy, you’re up as Field Leader.”

Superboy grunted.

“Zeta to Metropolis and head from there.”

 “And for Team Gamma, Robin, Piper, Percy and myself. I’m running as Field Leader. Our objective: Down Town Happy Harbor.”

Nightwing glanced around the Cave. “Is everyone clear?”

There were nods and ‘yes’s around.

“Good.” Nightwing turned to the eight new demigods. “Your Field Leader will suit you up with some protective gear and a comm. That will keep you in touch with everyone. No idle chatter over the line. The gear is a precautionary measure because where there’s a gang war, there’s guns, knives, and anything can be used as a weapon. It’ll get messy, especially if there’s monsters involved.” Nightwing explained. “And remember, your leader is exactly that: A leader. Trust them, and follow their lead.”

“We will.” Jason promised. _To the best of our abilities,_ he added silently in his head. “But, uh, won’t the sight of teens with weapons fighting monsters raise some questions?”

Nightwing smirked. “Trust me, the people here? They’re used to that by now.” He waved a hand and the holographic screens disappeared.

“Everyone, suit up!” He called out. “We leave in five.”

.

.

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I worked my butt off to write this chapter (because my muse would. Just. Not. Work. With. Me. At. All- so that’s the reason for me only describing one sparring scene. I really wanted to write everyone’s, but the Muse wouldn’t have it.  
> *fyi, the locations and all that about the multiverse was my own fabrication- I actually don’t know all that much about it other than the basic ideas, so if it’s not whats Cannon, just think of it as an AU ;)


	6. A Series of Unfortunate Events

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: wwwwweeeeeehhh chapter six! Um. I sorta died but here I am! And as usual, there is (I always feel like) OOCness (please let me know what you think on that…argh some of these characters!) Leo needs more screen time and Percy needs love (next chapter!). Nightwing is beautiful. 
> 
> Um. Style will kinda change, but that’s on purpose. Oh and breaklines. Lots of them. Sorry!  
> Special extra billion thanks to BluSkyRose for your amazing help with this chapter. You are amazing beyond words.

_._

_._

_._

**Young and Bullet Proof**

_Chapter six: A series of Unfortunate Events_

_._

Jason winced as his fist connected yet again with the face of an intoxicated man, knocking him out cold. It hadn’t taken long for the entire city of a rural part in Pennsylvania to erupt into complete chaos, mad people and Greek monsters terrorizing everything. The streets were trashed, buildings, cars and everything in between destroyed. Most of the civilians had cleared out, but there were still a few running around, trying to get to safety.

“Jason! Duck!” A voice cried out—Hazel—and instincts took over, dropping to the ground just in time for Hazel’s _spathe_ (how she still had it was a mystery to Jason) to impale itself into a Gorgon that had been coming up behind him.

Jason grabbed the weapon and tossed it back to her, Hazel catching it efficiently. “Thanks!”

She flashed him a thumbs up and quickly went back to decapitating Greek monsters.

 _How is this my life,_ Jason thought for a brief moment, wondering when things like this had stopped fazing him. Because, really? He was in a different universe. The farthest he’s ever been away from home, with super (and non-super) powered people, aliens, people from Atlantis, and who knows where else. Also, a gang war.

Jason wiped sweat off his brow and tried to catch his breath. Thinking about things like that wouldn’t help their current situation. They’d been at it for thirteen minutes and it was only thanks to Jason’s ADHD and previous experiences with ridiculous events and insane battles that he’d managed to hold his own against the angry mob.

 _This would be a whole lot easier they were just monsters, not normal humans,_ Jason thought grimly. Annabeth was right; they weren’t used to fighting simple hand-to-hand combat against ordinary people, high or not. With monsters, they didn’t have to worry about the moral side of things, because, well, they were just that; monsters. And besides, they regenerated. Human beings, well…

Jason knew for sure that once you died, you stayed dead. (Unless you chose rebirth but it wasn’t the same thing).

“ _Alpha squad to Beta, Gamma and Omega_ ,” Aqualad’s calm voice came through the comms., “ _Captain Marvel, Guardian, Static and Bumble Bee have joined us, our situation is now under control. What are your situations?”_

“ _Um…_ ” A voice came through that Jason identified as Superboy’s. “ _It’s gett_ —” his voice cut off to be replaced with a grunt and faint noises of screaming and a car honking, “— _getting there_.” Superboy answered.

“Same here,” Jason heard Batgirl say and turned to see her further down the street, flipping someone off her shoulder and into some trash cans.

“Most of the Gorgons have been dealt with,” Jason said, scanning the (pretty much demolished) square, watching Blue Beetle and Hazel take care of the last few opponents.

“ _Good_ ,” Nightwing’s voice crackled over the line, “ _regroup with us once you’re finished. Things are clearing up over here too.”_

“ _Ten-four_ ,” Superboy responded.

“ _You guys missed an awesome show!_ ” Impulse cheered through the comms. “ _Nico can control dead skeletons!”_

“ _Say what_?” Blue Beetle asked incredulously.

“ _It was pretty crash_!”

“ _Nico, you need to show me that_ ,” Wonder Girl said excitedly, joining the conversation.

“ _Um,_ ” Nico’s voice sounded hesitant. “ _Sure?_ ”

“ _Enough talking, more fighting_.” Nightwing reminded them. “ _But you should show us after we’ve cleaned all this up_ ,” he added as an afterthought.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

“So, you guys deal with this every day?” Percy asked as his lithe body nimbly dodged the oncoming attack and countered fluidly, stepping aside to let Robin summersault gracefully and knock the person unconscious with his collapsible…stick…thing.

“Um,” Robin answered as he and the son of Poseidon covered each other’s back, Robin maneuvering to let Percy deal with the Greek monsters. “Yes, among other things.”

Percy grunted, glancing over his shoulder to see Nightwing take down three people at once in a move that looked somehow more like dancing than actually fighting. Seriously, how did he do that?

“Fun. And you’re sure Nightwing doesn’t have any superpowers?” Percy asked. He couldn’t help but be impressed. Percy had fought battles with plenty of very skilled demigods—heck, even with the god of War himself, but he hadn’t ever seen anyone move the way the black haired young man did.

Robin let out a small laugh, sending two batarangs flying through the air and pinning two more zombie people (Percy’s name for them) against the wall. “I know, right? I think the laws of gravity don’t apply to him.” He smiled and Percy could tell there was a strong bond between the two. Percy had a sudden urge to see Tyson, and wasn’t quite sure why. “But no, Nightwing is completely human.”

The streets around them were, just like the other locations, completely trashed. Unconscious bodies lay awkwardly on the ground, cars and other debris lying in pieces.

“So…I know this is going to sound crazy, but this is actually kind of fun…” Piper said as she walked over to them. Despite her hair being disheveled and the small line of blood trickling down the left side of her face, she somehow managed _not_ to look like she’d just been in a gang war and fighting Greek monsters, which was much more than anyone else could say.

Percy groaned and stretched his arms over his head, slightly wincing as his bruised body protested. “I don’t know if the rest of us would agree with you,” Percy said, softening his disagreement with a grin.

Piper ran a hand through her hair and made a face. “The sooner I take a shower the better. And I don’t even want to know what’s in my hair right now.”

“Yeah, probably not.”

“Robin,” Nightwing called from across the street, interrupting them. He beckoned to Robin as he crouched down in front of a victim.

“Look at this,” he said, motioning towards the zombified woman.

Robin crouched next to the other hero, looking carefully at the zombie while Percy and Piper peered over their shoulders.

“That’s not good.” The young teen was frowning, apparently catching on to what Nightwing had discovered. Percy couldn’t see anything particularly interesting himself, but then he didn’t know what he was looking for.

“What’s not good?” Piper asked looking between the two.

Nightwing gently leaned the woman into a more comfortable position and brushed some of the dirt off her face. Her eyes were glazed over. Her body shook and her breathing was harsh and erratic.

“It’s Scarecrow.” Robin said, pulling out something from his utility belt.

“Like the thing that scares away birds in cornfields?” Percy frowned.

“No.” Nightwing shook his head, getting up and standing next to the two demi-gods. “He’s a psychopath who likes to inject people with his fear toxins. They make you see whatever it is you most fear while simultaneously magnifying your capacity to feel fear. The stronger the toxin, the stronger the fears.”

“You sound like you speak from experience,” Piper noticed.

Nightwing gave her a rueful smile. “We’ve all had our fair share of it.”

“I took a blood sample,” Robin announced. “I can tell you now that the toxin hasn’t been in her long. Whoever did this, Scarecrow or a flunky, they’re probably still nearby. I can take the sample to the cave and analyze it, figure out if the antidotes we have will work or if we’ll need to make another.”

Nightwing ran a hand through his hair. “We can deal with that when we get to-”

A piercing scream rang through the air, and they all whipped around to sink into battle-ready positions.

“Over there,” Percy motioned with his head to one of the empty, ruined buildings as the four heroes quickly and quietly moved to press themselves against the side of a wall, out of sight from any of the windows. 

“All right, Percy and Robin, you two take the front entrance, Piper and I will go around back,” Nightwing told them softly. “Be careful,” he stressed, “and keep the comm. line open at all times.”

They nodded.

“Go.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

“Nico, you okay?” Annabeth asked the son of Hades, her grey eyes carefully looking him over.

“I’m fine.” Nico said, ducking his head to break her gaze.

Annabeth snorted. “Sure. I can tell your arm is bothering you.”

They had managed to get the situation more or less completely taken care of, especially with the added of help of the other heroes, who were placing the rest of humans into the hands of the police or doctors.

Annabeth and Nico were standing to the side, waiting for them to finish up. She sighed. Taking care of monsters was so much easier because they turned to ash as soon as they finished impaling them. The demigods had left taking care of the humans to the Young Justice heroes and they made sure Annabeth and Nico had ample room to take care of the Gorgons.

Annabeth wasn’t able to help but grin at their faces once she and Nico got to work. Sure the rest of the demigods weren’t able to fight like Percy, because not only was her boyfriend super-hot- something Annabeth had noticed that the rest of the female fighters had realized- he was also ridiculously good at fighting) but that didn’t mean she or the rest of the demigods couldn’t give them something worth watching either.

Nico shrugged his shoulder. “I’ll be fine.”

Annabeth sighed. “I don’t know how Will handles you.”               

Nico shot her a look. “What does Will have to do with this?”

“Nothing, never mind.” Annabeth waved her hand and tried to hide her grin but couldn’t quite manage.

“What’cha talking about?” Impulse said as he appeared in front of them, a gush of air following his arrival.

“Nothing.” Nico said with a pointed look at Annabeth. She grinned and turned back to the speedster.

“Do you know what’s wrong with them?” Annabeth asked.

Impulse shook his head. “Nope. We got squat. But the meds are going to see what they can do. Anyways, we’re pretty much done here so we’re heading over to regroup with Nightwing.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

They snuck in quietly, Robin and Percy coming in one dilapidated window and Nightwing and Piper through another. The architecture aside, the building actually seemed very clean, at least on the ground floor, and there was modern scientific equipment, also on that floor. Crates and cabinets lined the walls, and walkways and attic space cluttered with heavy-looking boxes littered the air space. Three white tables resided in the center of the room, two of them occupied by what looked like more zombies only these were far more agitated; one was actually foaming at the mouth and the other appeared to be having a seizure. Stealthily, the heroes started to check for other inhabitants. They had not been looking for long when a voice echoed up to them.

“I know you’re there. I can sense it. Come out, come out, Batman.”

There was an underlying tremble in the voice, a mix of fear and excitement. Nightwing considered for a moment before answering, never stopping his progress around the room.

“You first.”

A pause, then; “Birdboy? Is that you? This would be a disappointment, but you brought friends for me. Lovely, young, fresh meat. Vulnerable little things. I saw them with my followers; they think they know how to fight. I bet they think they’re brave. Oh, the things I—”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Let’s talk about your ‘followers.’ Another new experiment?”

“But I want to talk about your friends. Especially the Boy Wonder, aren’t you a _special prize_.” The voice paused to cackle quietly, making Robin tense. “He won’t be getting in my way tonight…”

Percy’s eyes widened as a scrawny body draped in cloth rose up behind Robin, pointing a gun and smiling maniacally. Without thought or consideration—there was no time, it was a freaking _gun—_ Percy grabbed hold of Robin with both hands and shoved him to the side as hard as he could. A little too hard; Robin skidded back about eleven feet. Percy was looking at Robin, trying to make sure he hadn’t hurt him, when there was a clicking sound and something buried itself in his chest. The ragged man, still brandishing the gun, was laughing maliciously. Percy looked at him, uncomprehending, already becoming foggy. He curled his hand around the empty syringe to pull it out and couldn’t. Or maybe he could. Percy wasn’t sure. His head was reeling and there were shadows in the corners of his eyes, multiplying and moving frantically towards him.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

  
There was a grunt and the sound of a fist making impact with flesh, and the Scarecrow flew back. Robin stood over him, trembling with rage. Nightwing didn’t speak, but he wasted no time in getting there. He looked at Robin briefly, and Robin moved back to let Nightwing handle the Scarecrow, going back to check on Percy. In another moment Piper was there, leaning over Percy in worry. Percy’s skin was clammy, and his eyes were distant and glassy. He was trembling all over and it was only got worse while they watched. Robin mouthed a curse but didn’t voice it, instead trying to talk to Percy. Looking at Percy’s face, Piper doubted he could hear anything at all.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

Percy was seven years old, at a school he hated, and completely miserable. He was on the swing set, waiting for his mom to show up so he could go home, when he saw Edward and his friends coming towards him. Percy tried to get up but couldn’t. Dry mouthed he waited, knowing full well what he could expect and, of course, what he couldn’t; mercy.

Percy couldn’t tear his eyes away. His heart was pounding and his inner organs seemed to be trying to stage an escape. His lungs heaved and terror pressed down on him from all sides, making him sick with its weight. In that moment he felt the same way about Edward approaching him as he would about a serial killer stalking him. And still, he

-just

couldn’t…

 _move_ -!

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

“What was it? _Tell me what it was!_ ” In the past, Nightwing has sometimes had to pretend to be angrier and more aggressive than he actually was, usually to get information from an uncooperative source. It was just playing a role, that’s all, and he could do it beautifully.

Now, however, he didn’t have to pretend.

“Get away from me!” It was a sound between a hiss and a snarl. The Scarecrow has maintained that Batman is the only thing that scares him, but he’s never seen Nightwing like this before, apparently lost to his own fury and oh, so dangerous. He’s a little conflicted.

“ _Tell me._ ” A threat and an order and a demand all at once.

“ _No._ I won’t _._ ”

Nightwing smiled. It made him look scarier.

“ _Are you sure?_ ”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

Percy is with his mother, walking in a crowd. They’re holding hands loosely. At first Percy is people-watching, but that gets boring. He’s not sure how long they’ve been walking or where they’re going, and he looks up at his mother to ask her, but

That.

That is not his mother.

_Where is she?_

The woman smiles down at him, and her teeth are long and pointed. Percy couldn’t care less. _Where is my mother?_

He lets go of the monster, and it roars and swipes at him, but he slips away into the crowd. He doesn’t call out for his mom because monsters might hear, but he knows he has to find her. There is a terrible feeling of danger all around him. When he looks at people head on, they just look like people and a little faded. But in the corner of his eye they become monsters, staring at him and hissing.

He can’t find her. He must find her. He can’t.

_Father, help me._

Percy disentangles himself from the crowd, but can’t go far. He sits down to wait for Poseidon. He tries to ignore the monsters all around him who disappear when he looks, but he can’t. His instincts won’t let him relax in the presence of a threat.

A trident clatters down in front of him, and he startles, sending a shot of fear through him. He looks up to see Gaea, holding Zeus’ master thunderbolt in one hand and Percy’s mother in the other. Her eyes are closed, and she is being lifted by her neck. Percy is frozen in place. The monsters have stopped disappearing when he looks at them. Gaea smiles and constricts her hand slowly. Sally turns into gold sand, which is blown away, bit by bit, until there is nothing left. Percy stops breathing. The earth mother isn’t done, however. She reaches inside her toga and pulls out Riptide—or, the pieces of it—and throws it down to Percy. The remains land in front of him, and Percy stares at them.

He has no weapon and no armor. Poseidon is gone, and with him, the ocean and Percy’s powers. He couldn’t save his mother. In terms of power, this is the most vulnerable Percy has ever been.

The monsters close in.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

“This looks like one of the older versions, judging from the effect it’s having. I think it’s one of the more straightforward ones.”

“But that’s good, isn’t it?” Piper wanted to know.

Robin hesitated. He cast a sidelong glance at Nightwing before answering. “Well…yes and no. We almost certainly have the antidote, just not with us.”

“…and?”

“And…if we don’t give it to him within a few hours his heart will give out.”

Piper looked at him, shocked and disbelieving. She swallowed, twice, and didn’t let herself panic. Her voice was a whisper. “We need to tell Annabeth. She should be here with him.”

Nightwing nodded his head. “We aren’t giving up on Percy yet, though. Robin will take him back, give him the antidote, and stay for a while to make sure it works. Then Agent A will take care of Percy and Robin will come back to help us.”

Piper nodded and felt something hot burn at the back of her eyes and blinked a few times to clear them. This suddenly felt so surreal.

“For now let’s move. Robin, call the Batmoible and tell Agent A to prep.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

Percy was back into nothingness again. It was an awful, drifting feeling, and even though he couldn’t feel his body he ached. He was tired and scared, and the fact that he was scared was making him more scared. Percy couldn’t remember ever being so afraid before, but then he was having trouble with memory in general.

Ah. Here it was again. His mind began to skip and skid, sliding into walls and breaking every metaphorical bone in his consciousness. It was like—here it went—so _surreal._

Twilight. Where was he? Annabeth, he was with Annabeth. They stood on a hill, and the ice in the stomach matched the temperature of the wind. Something horrible was coming, something that he dreaded with all his might, but he didn’t know what it was. The air tasted so very wrong, but then—

_Everything is wrong._

He was standing on a hill with Annabeth.

And—and—

Clouds, like desperation and hopelessness, engulfed the sky. Raindrops fell and froze his skin and the thunder was loud overhead. It was no place to talk

to talk

they were there—they were there on the hill—Annabeth—

_Shouldn’t we go somewhere warmer?_

She shook her head at him. Her eyes were like steel and her mouth was proud and cold. She started to speak.

_I can’t hear you—speak louder!_

She looked contemptuous. He watched her mouth form the words. _You can hear me. You just don’t want to. You’re so immature sometimes Percy._

For a moment Athena stood behind her daughter, huge and foreboding.

The terror inside of Percy suddenly became clear, and he knew what was happening. Just like before ( _what happened before?_ ) he could not—could not—move.

He couldn’t hear Annabeth but he knew what she was saying. Her eyes pinned him in place like a butterfly to a board. He couldn’t say a word in defense of himself, and the warmth leeching out of him wasn’t because of the storm. He was (no) losing her. He was (no) losing her. He was losing her…

_I don’t like you anymore Percy. I can’t even remember why I did to begin with._

_Why don’t you care more? You don’t contribute anything to this relationship._

_Why can’t you just be better? It’s like you enjoy disappointing people._

_I can’t remember why I ever went out with you._

**(\M/)**

**\/**

Percy had gone still and quiet. Robin was the first to see the tears dripping down his cheeks, and he reached to gently wipe them away. He noticed that Percy didn’t look afraid so much as trapped in a deep sadness, probably something beyond that. He turned to tell Nightwing that Percy was in stage two.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

It was Mount Olympus, but a different Mount Olympus. This was mid-war Olympus, and it wasn’t pretty. Marble was smashed and dust filled the air. The temples were almost all damaged, and the throne room had been blasted apart. Percy stood there, panting, Riptide in his hand. Kronos smirked at him, but it made him look insane rather than triumphant. Kronos was not in Luke’s body, but was in the shape of a dark wraith.

They had been battling a long time. At first, Percy hadn’t been alone, but the others had all been either knocked out, incapacitated through injury, or killed. Now it was just him and Kronos, and Percy’s strength was waning.

Percy was the one in the prophecy. Percy was meant to save them, to save everyone. But in that moment, he couldn’t see how.

Percy failed them. They were all bleeding-dead, their eyes glazed open.

 _It’s a nightmare! Wake up!_ Percy wanted to scream, to wake up but he couldn’t.

_He’d failed them._

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

Hazel voiced what they were all thinking;

“We’re going to need backup.”

“Where did they all come from?” Jason asked as they clustered together in a circle with their backs facing inwards. “They weren’t here five minutes ago!”

Blue Beetle snorted. “No freaking duh!”

Jason shot him a dirty look. “ _These_ are different. Why?”

“Enough.” Batgirl cut in. “Stop bickering. There are more important things to deal with.”

Hazel took a deep breath. “And here they come.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

 

“What was that?” Frank asked as the ground below them shook with tremors. They had finally managed to wrap everything up and were on their way to start regrouping with Nightwing. Everyone was tired, beaten up, and more than ready for a shower and some food.

Another tremor shook the ground.

Beast Boy quickly shifted from a leopard to his normal form next to Frank. “An earthquake?”

“Is that normal?” Leo asked as he tried regaining his balance, almost falling face first on the floor. He winced as pain shot through his ankle when he shifted his weight. He’d managed to sprain it pretty badly during the fight and gave Wonder Girl a thankful grin as she helped steady him.

“Um, no.” Her brows were furrowed and she looked over to Superboy for instructions.

The Boy of Steel had his eyes closed, concentrating on something.

“Uh, what’s he doing?” Frank asked. The tremors had stopped for now, but it had left in them surrounded by destroyed buildings and unconscious zombie-people littering the floor.

“He’s got super-hearing,” Beast Boy said helpfully.

Connor opened his eyes and looked around. “It could be just a normal earthquake, but something tells me I’m wrong. Whatever it is, it’s not good.”

“Great.” Leo sighed.

“Want me to fly around, see if I can find anything?” Wonder Girl offered and Superboy shook his head.

“You guys go and meet up with Nightwing, I’ll go.”

“Someone should go with you,” Frank said, stepping forward. “Sending one man solo doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

“ _All squads_!” Batgirl’s voice came to them through the comms. Her voice was low with urgency. “ _We need backup over here ASAP! Hazel’s been taken by something- we can’t go after her- there are too many monsters for us to hold off.”_

“What do you mean ‘she’s taken’?” Frank responded, his face a mix of emotions.

“ _No time for that now_ ,” Aqualad spoke. “ _All squads regroup at Batgirl’s signal_.”

“What happened to Hazel?” Both Leo and Nico said at almost the same time, creating an echo.

“Copy that.” Superboy answered. He looked at Frank, “we’ll find her, don’t worry.”

“We have a problem-o,” Impluse said. The sound of wind could faintly be heard through the lines. “The Zeta Tubes aren’t working. Like at all.”

Superboy exchanged a worried look with Wonder Girl. “Crap.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

“ _Nightwing, come in_.”

Nightwing opened his comm. as he made his way over to the Batmobile, Percy in his arms.

“I’m here, Batgirl.”

“ _We have a situation_.” Her voice sounded tense. “ _We’re up to our necks in monsters, Hazel’s been taken and the Zeta Tubes are offline.”_

“What?” Nightwing asked, his eyes widening slightly in surprise. He slowed as they approached the Batmobile, shrouded in shadows as usual.

He heard Piper’s surprised ‘ _woah_ ’ and waited for Robin to disable the security systems and open the top.

“Well we have more bad news. The toxins in the people _are_ a form of Scarecrows fear toxins- what Percy got hit with was something different, one of the older strains.”

“ _Oh no_.”

“Robin’s taking him to the cave, Piper and I will rendezvous with you guys in a few minutes.” Nightwing gently laid Percy in the car (tank), feeling conflicted. He hated seeing Percy this way, but at the same time he couldn’t help be glad and rather thankful to Percy. He’d seen Percy push his little brother out of the way.

“ _We need more backup, someone close; the others won’t get here in time_.”

Nightwing racked his brain and didn’t quite like the result he ended up with.

“Alright. I’ll send back up your way. Just hang on till he gets there.”

“ _Hurry,”_ was Batgirl’s final word before line closed.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

Jason Todd was not having a good. He’d lost the crime boss that he’d been tracking down for months- bloody freaking stupid GPS- and the one that he was going to interrogate died of cancer and apparently old age.

Damned death by natural causes.

Now, he had no one to hunt down and kill-okay, paralyze for life (because he’d promised his replacement and stupid Golden Boy that’d he’d keep it to three kills a week- Jason was a nice brother like that- but Monday had been rather crappy and that _may_ have resulted in a few dead bodies). And to make matters worse, one of his most reliable informants had been strangled to death by some dude who’d thought he’d been sleeping with his girl.

Damned death by unnatural causes.

“ _Hood_.”

Jason cursed and considered ignoring the call but knew that would somehow come to back to bite him in the ass.

“Goldie.”

“ _We need your help_.”

“Screw you.”

(Jason wanted to kill people not help them and he knew that Nightwing would only let him do the second one so there really was not point in talking to him right now.)

“ _Jason_.”

“Dick.”

A sigh. Then; “ _Please, Hood. We really need your help. Tim was attacked by Scarecrow and there are Greek monsters rampaging all over the place, so we need your help to kill them_.”

“Kill…them?”

And possible get revenge on Scarecrow for whatever he did to the Replacement. (Jason rather die again than admit he’d grown fond and protective of the boy.)

“ _You sound like a weirdo. But yeah._ ”

A pause. “Where are you?”

.

.

.


	7. Combat Engaged

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, throughout this chapter I’ve hidden (not so hidden) some quotes from movies/shows (other fandoms, pretty much) to honor those amazing creations ^^ some are really obvious, others…really aren’t. soo, to the person who can find all five references throughout this chap gets kudos! :D you can always pm me if you have any questions to them ;) but if you see a quote from something, I most likely did that on purpose (: 
> 
> I don't own anything

_._

_._

**Young and Bullet Proof**

_Chapter seven: Combat engaged_

_._

“Watch out!” Batgirl called out, for what seemed like the seventeenth time in three minutes as another monster almost took Jason’s head off.

“Oof,” Jason gasped out a pained breath, dropping to floor sharply and twisting over, swinging his legs up and knocking the monster down. By this time he wasn’t even consciously identifying what he was fighting- exhaustion was quickly overtaking him, all them, and they were running on fumes.

“These aren’t normal monsters…!” Jason’s eyes widened as he realized that the new wave of creatures were _very_ different from what they had been previously fighting.  The best Jason could describe them as were some sort of deformed molted creatures.

“But nothing except your weapons work- look out!” Blue Beetle yelled back, the few walls that were still standing crumbling to the ground nearly burring the young teen.

“Ack,” Jason dove out the way, finding himself on the floor- _again._

Pretty much about everything hurt, and Jason knew that if something didn’t happen soon- something _good_ \- the end result for them wasn’t going to be pretty.

“Thanks for the warning,” he said back, taking a few seconds to clear his vision.

“Blue, cover our six,” Batgirl ordered, eyeing their situation critically. _Come on, Dick,_ she thought to herself, _where’s that backup?_

“Gotcha covered,” Blue Beetle responded, making a move to do just that.

_Bang!_

“Um, what?” Blue Beetle asked in confusion as the sound echoed around the completely destroyed block, two monsters reeling backwards from whatever it was that hit them. Two seconds later a figure dropped down silently, wasting no time in firing at another monster that was coming up from behind Blue Beetle.

“Nice to see you finally get off your lazy butt and join the part.” Batgirl said, a tired smirk on her lips.

The Red Hood cocked back both of his guns.

“Sorry,” a smirk of his own could be heard in his words, “I got the invitation a little late.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

Robin let out a relived sigh as Percy finally, _finally,_ settled down, his breathing evening out. The antidote Tim was able to put together seemed to be working, although he knew he’d have to find something to flush out the fear gas more permanently.  He ran a hand through his hair (he still needed a haircut) and slumped down in Bruce’s chair at the computer console.

_Bruce._

The man had been off-world for more than a few weeks now, the cave and the Manor seemed strangely empty, even with all the constant coming and going of all the other heroes. Tim would have been lying if he had said he didn’t miss his mentor. Sure, his own parents were still alive, gallivanting off somewhere (probably in the middle of Australia), and while Tim did care for them, Bruce had acted more like a parent to him than his real ones ever really did.

He shook his head lightly to clear his thoughts. Now wasn’t really the time to analyze his personal life.

 _We could really use your help now, Bruce,_ Tim thought pulling his knees up to his chest, checking Percy’s vitals again. Tim wasn’t disillusioned, with Gotham without her Batman things were different and everyone the city could feel it, creating more work for the Bats. And now with eight new teens and that whole issue, Tim didn’t doubt that Dick was running himself thin.

Even with the added help from Jason (he’d even been spending some time at the Manor with them) and Barbra, they needed _Batman._

Tim suppressed the urge to leave and help Nightwing (and check on Cassie), he knew someone needed to stay with Percy and the team needed Nightwing.

“Master Timothy, might I suggest you eat something while you wait for your results?” An older voice with a British accent brought Tim out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see Alfred (ever faithful Alfred) holding a tray with what looked like sandwich and an energy drink.

“Thanks Alfred,” Tim said, giving him a small smile before taking the food from him.

“Of course,” The butler answered with a small smile.

There was silence once again in the Batcave, other than the noise from the bats above and the beeping of Percy’s heart monitor.

“Alfred…Percy will be okay, right?” Tim asked quietly after a few minutes.

“He is in very capable hands, and I have no doubt he is a fighter,” Alfred answered, placing a hand on the young teen. “I am sure he will recover.”

Tim nodded and settled his blue eyes back on the unconscious teen.

_I hope you’re right._

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

Piper gripped Nightwing’s waist tighter as he weaved through the streets expertly.

After Robin had taken Percy…somewhere (in some sweet looking ride that Piper desperately wanted try out, preferably once they weren’t fighting for their lives) Nightwing had made a quick stop at one of his safe houses, spending just enough time to grab something and one of his motorcycles.

Piper was insanely jealous of the motorcycles.

Because they were wicked.

“Hold on,” She heard Nightwing say through the mic systems in their helmets.

Piper resisted the urge to close her eyes as they took a quick turn, the wheels skidding across the pavement.

Piper tried to focus once again on the motorcycles and (…preferably not the fact that Nightwing was very toned…) the ride rather than humongous rock at the pit of her stomach that had the words ‘INTENSE FEAR FOR YOUR FRIENDS AND POSSIBILY AN IMMENENT DEATH’.

Piper usually tried to stay positive. But she was finding it increasingly hard to do that, especially knowing that Percy was trapped in his own head, relieving his worst nightmares and hallucinating. She knew that after what he’d went through…they were going to be far from pleasant.

The sense of helplessness she’d experienced in that run down building was something she never wanted to feel again.

_Ever._

And then there was Jason- Piper had no idea how he was doing, Hazel was missing and the zeta tubes were down.

At this point Piper just wanted to pretend nothing had ever happened and wake up in her bed- her real bed, back at Camp Half-Blood.

“Don’t worry,” Nightwing said, seeming to read her thoughts, “Robin will take care of Percy. He knows what he’s doing. And the rest of your friends are highly skilled, they’ll be able to hold their ground.”

They turned another comer and entered an underground tunnel, speeding through. 

Piper gave a decisive nod, “you’re right.” _It’s just that…_ she wasn’t even really sure how to continue her thought.

“Besides,” Nightwing said lightly with a grin, “at this point we should worry about whether or not they saved any of the fun for us.”

Piper couldn’t help but give a much undignified snort and a grin of her own.

 “Allons-y.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

“Who are you?” Jason couldn’t help but ask, eyeing the get-up, the strange red helmet…hood…face mask…hood in particular. It made his voice come out a little tonelessly, there was obviously some sort of voice distortion mechanism in the helmet…hood. The rest of the outfit Jason had to admit was pretty badass, consisting of some sort of armor plating on the chest, a leather jacket, pants made out of some durable material and twin holsters strapped to either of his thighs. A blood red Bat symbol covered the top part of his chest.

“The person saving your sorry butts.” Was the snarky response he received.

Batgirl rolled her eyes, preforming a graceful spin hook kick following through with a backhand to one of the monsters. It uttered a slight ‘ _urk_ ’ before Jason sliced it in half, not waiting to see it turn into ash.

Blue Beetle seemed to be having a one sided argument from his place above them, shooting whatever he had at the monsters in hopes to slow them down a bit.

“We need more celestial bronze or imperial gold!” Jason said. Their advantage? All them were trained fighters, knocking the monsters (and occasional zombie person- although most if not all had already been dealt with) with deadly blows and slowing them down. Their disadvantage? The only way to permanently kill a monster was with the weapons none of them except Jason wielded, so it was solely up to him to deal the finishing blow.

“That was not in the party description,” The red helmet…person said, nailing bullseye’s into each of the monsters’ heads.

Batgirl snorted. “Sorry, we were a bit caught up with all the decoration.”

“What-?” Jason didn’t have time to finish his question as a tremor shook the ground, causing him to stumble and fall on his butt.

_Ow._

“The hell?” Red Hood finished. Introductions had been brief; all what Jason got out of it was the guy’s name (he finally knew what to call his strange headwear) and that Red Hood seemed to find Jason’s   name amusing for some reason.

They all moved away in surprise as the ground under them broke apart, dirt and debris flying everywhere.

“Get back!” Batgirl called out as they all backed up.

“Crap.” Jason said blandly as they all watched the ground in front of them seem to fold in on itself while somethings crawled out of it.

“Where are they all coming from?!” Blue Beetle voiced the question they were all thinking.

“Well see, there’s this big hole in the ground that-”

Batgirl effectively cut off Red Hood’s sarcastic response by throwing some small round objects, not flinching as the exploded a half second later.

“I don’t think that’s going to…” Jason trailed off as the dust cleared away and they were faced by swarms of not-Greek-monster-creatures. “…work.”

There was a moment where nothing happened, the creature…monster…things just staring ahead at them.

It passed in a second, and Jason had barely enough time to get some defense ready before he found himself fighting off attacks, adrenaline coursing through his body. He was saved from losing his head (freaking _again_ , that was getting really repetitive for some reason) by the Red Hood, and Jason found himself thanking the gods that they had the Bats on their team. They were like one people armies.

“Batgirl!” Blue Beetle yelled from above them, “look! Who’s that?”

Jason looked in the general direction he thought Blue Beetle was pointing and saw two figures- one bulky the other small- running down the streets. They were obviously trying to be discreet- although failing- and they paid no heed to the action that was happening parallel to them.

Batgirl swore. “That’s not suspicious at all.”

“They could have something to do with Hazel!” Jason said. “I’ll go after them!”

“No!” Batgirl ordered. “Your weapon is the only one that’s effective here.”

Right after Batgirl finished speaking a creature whipped around and knocked Jason down, his gladius flying out of his hand.

 _Double ow_.

“I’m starting to lose visual on them, _ese_!” Blue Beetle called.

Red Hood made a noise between a dying whale and a very aggravated parent. “I’ll go. Here, kid.”

Jason somehow managed to catch the object the Red Hood tossed him and get to his feet without losing a limb.

“BTW, this party sucks.” Red Hood said. “Like, majorly. I seriously need have a talk with Goldie about his choices on the guest list.”

Jason had a feeling that the Red Hood and Percy would probably get along well. They both seemed to like to make sarcastic remarks before nearly being skewered to death.

Batgirl said something back that Jason couldn’t hear.

“Wait!” Jason called out the Red Hood before he could disappear after the two people. He held up the gun that Red Hood had thrown him questioningly.

“Shoot them!” Red Hood answered, ducking below a poorly aimed attack.

“Shoot them?” Jason asked with a look.

“Politely!” Red Hood snapped back sarcastically before vanishing after the two figures Blue Beetle had spotted.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

 “We have to find Hazel!” Frank said as he balled his fists at his sides. “We _need_ to find her.”

Cassie gave Frank an understanding look, wiping some grime off her forehead. Her blonde hair was sleeked with sweat and her fists were hurting.

None of the others looked any better off.

“Superboy,” Beast Boy turned to their squad leader, “what do we do? The zeta tubes aren’t working…” He trailed off, the looks on everyone’s faces grave.

“Aqualad,” Superboy said through the comms., “is there a way of you getting the Bio Ship to us?”

There was a noise and static and then Aqualad’s voice.

“ _I am sorry my friends, it will take some time for us to get to you.”_

“Right,” Superboy answered.

“Why don’t we just fly over there?” Wonder Girl proposed, motioning to her, Beast Boy and Frank. “I can fly and these two can shapeshift into something.”

“Would that really be quicker though?” Leo asked skeptically.

They looked at each other, and Leo tugged at one of his ringlets of curly brown hair.

“We don’t really have much of a choice, do we?” He asked ruefully.

“Yeah,” Wonder Girl answered, “not really.”

“Okay, Beast Boy, Wonder Girl and Frank, you three go and meet up with Batgirl and the others, figure out from there and go get Hazel back. I’ll stay here with Leo and wait for the Bio Ship.” Superboy decided. In a short moment Frank and Beast Boy had shifted into Peregrine Falcons and the three of them had left, Cassie give Superboy a mock salute as they departed. “I’m sending some your way, Batgirl,” he said into the comm., “Aqualad, get us with the Bio Ship ASAP.”

“ _Understood_.” The Atlantean responded.

“ _Good,_ ” Batgirl said, _“We’re barely-”_ the sound of gunshots, some yelling and a few words of choice that should not be mentioned interrupted her for a second. “- _handling it here, we could use as much backup possible.”_

“What about Hazel?” Leo asked worriedly.

“ _Nightwing and I are trying to track her,”_ Piper answered. _“I’ll let you know as soon as we find her.”_

 _“What about Percy?”_ Annabeth’s voice came through, worry lacing her words.

 _“Percy’s with Robin, they’re both safe, don’t worry.”_ Nightwing said, his voice tight. “ _Red Arrow and Cheshire are taking care of the East End with Bumble Bee and Guardian. We need to concentrate on taking care of the influx of monsters at Batgirl’s location.”_

 _“Where’s the League?”_ Blue Beetle wondered.

“ _They still have their hands full up in space,”_ Nightwing answered.

“Of course they do,” Superboy snorted. “What about the zeta tubes? What went wrong with those?”

There was more noise and then Impulse’s light panting was heard. “ _I have no idea, somehow it got moded. The one I’m at, the circuits were all fried, kinda like someone overloaded the systems. It’ll probably take a while to fix. This is so not crash.”_

 _“Okay, hold tight, we’re on our way to rendezvous with the rest of the, uh, team.”_ Annabeth said. “ _Wow this ship is interesting, what’s it made out of?”_

“Superboy, can you take me to a zeta tube?” Leo asked, a gleam in his eyes. “I think I might be able to get them up and running again.”

Superboy gave Leo a look. “How?”

“I have a way with mechanics.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

Hazel shut her eyes and tried taking a few breaths to calm her racing heart down.

 _Think Hazel, think!_ She thought to herself. _You’re underground, that’s exactly your forte. You can figure this out._

She tugged at her (very well bound) wrists again, glaring at the chains. Her hands were chained up above her head and her feet bound together. She had awoken with a pounding headache five minutes and realized she was definitely _not_ where she was supposed to be. She was somewhere dark and underground, she could tell, but everything was disoriented. Somehow, one of the monsters…thing…had managed to knock her out and the next thing she knew she was here.

She had no idea why she couldn’t just open a hole in the ground. Maybe it was the shackles?

“Nngh, how does this keep happening?” Hazel said out loud, bemoaning her bad luck. “It’s not as if we hadn’t just fought a war or saved the world or anything.”

She gave another half-hearted tug at her bound wrists and tried to shift into a more comfortable position.

 _At least figure out why you’ve been captured,_ Hazel thought to herself, trying to make out her surroundings in the dark space.

She could faintly see some crates and pieces of cloth- a shirt maybe? Planks of wood were lying about, there was a dank smell and the air seemed stale. There was a faint outline of a doorway leading off into another room, but Hazel couldn’t see past that.

A sharp _clank_ startled Hazel out of her musings, her heart immediately beating faster with the prospect of unknown danger.

 “Th…needed…why.” Hazel could barely make out part of the sentence being whispered somewhere deeper in the adjacent room.

Another voice murmured back. “…doesn’t…sacrifice…demigod.”

Hazel’s eyes widened at the words she made out.

“Stupid…ey…son.” They sounded nervous and out of breath, like they had just run a marathon.

“thi…ost him?”

Hazel could hear heavy footsteps making their way towards her, the voices becoming clearer as they approached.

“…with the Bats. Freak’in Bats, man.” It was hard for Hazel to make out if the first speaker was female or male.

“I heard even death don’t stop ‘em. Gots the boss man flipping out.” That was definitely male.

“Whatever, man. We just need the kid and one of the brats.”

 _Kid…? What kid?_ Hazel tried to catch the rest of the conversation.

“…Already got one. What’s the difference between them, anyways? ‘Sides, it can’t be that hard to capture one of ‘em. Heck, Joker’s done it countless times. Why don’t we just ask him to do it?”

“Tch- you really are an idiot, you know that? You get the wrong one _and_ you haven’t even figured out the plan yet. ‘Sides, you know the boss man would _never_ try working with that psychopath.”

There was a sound of something opening and Hazel figured they were shuffling through whatever was in the room.

“The heck _is_ the plan?” The man asked, annoyance clear in his voice. “Half the time that rambling is nonsense! What, are we trying to sell ‘em inter-galactically or something?”

 _What?_ Hazel thought again. She knew they were talking about them- her and the rest of the demigods, and one of the heroes probably- but the conversation wasn’t making much sense to her.

There was a sigh and more noises. “Please don’t talk out loud, you lower the IQ of the entire street.”

“Well screw you too.”

“Let’s just go, we’ve got what we need.”

“Whatever.” There was a noise that sounded suspiciously like guns being cocked.

“Wait…what about the girl?”

Hazel held her breath.

“What about her? She’s probably still knocked out, drooling all over the place.

Hazel glared at the direction of the voices, glowering.

“I’m going to go check on her.” The other person answered, and Hazel tried not to panic, deciding to try to feign unconsciousness.

She could feel the presence of another person in the room and felt something brush her leg.

“She’s still out,” the person said, turning and heading back through the doorway. Hazel let out the breath she had been holding, thanking the gods that worked.

“Let’s go.”

She heard a door begin to creak open and then a sharp yell.

“What the-”

“Look out-!” The other voice began to say but cut off.

Hazel pressed her back up against the wall as the listened to noise coming through from the other room. There was a lot of stuff breaking and yelling, some curse words and groans.

“I’m gonna kill you, you sonuva- _nnrggh!_ ”

She winced as the very audible sound of something breaking took place, followed by more screaming. A muted conversation seemed to take place, but Hazel was too far away to hear what was being said.

“I’m not telling you freak nothing!” the man yelled.

There was a moment of silence.

“I’ll talk! I’ll talk! Just stop already _, stop_! She in the back room! I swear!”

 _Oh no._ Hazel thought, her eyes widening. _Get out, get out, get out!_ She frantically started pulling on her bonds again. She doubted it was any of her friends come to save her, they would have made their presence known already.

“Hey, anyone there?” someone called out. Hazel couldn’t place the voice, it sounded distorted mechanically. Like a mask Darth Vader would have worn.

 _Well that’s definitely not Darth Vader…_ Hazel thought as the figure entered the room.

“Um,” she gulped as they looked at each other. She couldn’t make out much of anything in the dark, other than two white silts that reminded her of the masks Robin and Nightwing wore.

“I think I found your missing person,” The guy said, and Hazel realized he must have been talking through a comm.

“Who are you?” She asked, trying to sound as strong as possible.

“Red Hood,” was the short answer she got, and it was then that she made out the Bat symbol across his chest. “I’m here ta bust you out.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

 “How much longer?” Annabeth asked Aqualad as the Bio Ship sped through the air.

Her marvel of the ship and its biology (of their whole situation, actually) had been replaced with a worry at the pit in stomach.

 _Percy you had better_ not _be on the verge of dying._ Annabeth internally ordered her boyfriend. _Again._

“About close to four minutes,” Aqualad answered. He and Impulse were sitting behind them closer to the controls, the latter eating what looked to be two different power bars.

Annabeth tried to relax her tense shoulders and breathe a bit more evenly. It seems as though everyone was suffering from small wounds and exhaustion.

Annabeth swore internally. Whenever something went good, something just had to go bad. And then go from bad to worse. She wondered vaguely if hiding somewhere in New Zealand would give her and Percy some time to just relax and spend time with each other without an existential crisis happening.

 _Probably no,_ she sighed wryly, _after all, we’re in another universe right now and look how things are turning out._

One of the consolations she had here was that they weren’t alone in their fight. They were allied with some of the strongest people Annabeth had ever met (other than the Gods of Olympus). She just had to trust Nightwing when he said that Percy was safe.

Because at this point if something happened to him…Annabeth honestly had no idea what she would do. For all her plans, calculating, skills in strategies, none of those included- would ever include- plans that would take into account Percy not being by her side for the rest of her life. They had been through too much together.

She lightly shook her head.

That’s right. Percy and she had been through the depths of Tartarus itself- something this small wasn’t going to stop them.

 _Any_ of them.

“Are you okay?”

Annabeth turned to her side to see Nico’s obsidian eye’s looking at her with concern.

“You look kinda pale.”

Annabeth gave him a small teasing smile. “You’re one to talk.” They were talking quietly, for some reason that seemed to fit the tensed atmosphere in the Bio Ship.

Nico’s expression turned sour. “I’m getting a tan!”

Annabeth couldn’t help but give a small laugh at his face. “I know, I’m just pulling your leg. But to answer your question, I’ll be fine. This ain’t my first rodeo, ya know?”

At the blonde’s expecting look Nico raised an eyebrow. “I know…?”

Annabeth moaned and placed her head in her hands. “When all this over I’m going to give you a proper education in pop culture, you hear me?”

“O-okya,” Nico answered slowly, missing whatever the daughter of Athena was going on about.

“We’re here!” Impulse informed them.

From their vantage above the others they could see Batgirl and Jason back to back, with Blue Beetle trying to give them some air support. They were swarmed with a dark mass of creatures.

“Let’s go!” Aqualad ordered.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

“Well?” Superboy asked as Leo continued to tinker with one of the zeta tubes- one of the many disguised as an abandoned photo booth. He’d been at it for about ten minutes, and Superboy was growing more restless by the second.

“Almost there.” Leo answered without stopping. He was one hundred percent focused on whatever he was doing, leaving Superboy to pace back and forth while he waited.

“I seriously wish I could just clap my hands together and fix this thing…” Superboy heard Leo mutter to himself.

Neither of them said anything after that, Superboy continued to pace while Leo worked on the zeta tube.

“Come on…” Leo encouraged, tweaking something.

There was a faint _whirring_ sound and Leo scrambled backwards as zeta tube reactivated, a bright white light filled the booth.

Superboy looked at Leo in surprise. “You did it, it’s working again.”

Leo gave him a cheeky grin and accepted Superboy’s hand, letting himself be pulled up and shifting his weight onto his uninjured foot. “Son of Hephaestus, what can I say?”

Superboy rolled his eyes. “You can say- get down!”

“What- _oof_!” Leo groaned as Superboy tackled him to the ground just as some monster’s (more like a deformed creature) claws sliced through the air Leo’s head had occupied a second ago.

“Where’d they come from?” Leo yelled, setting several on fire, trying to avoid Superboy who was pretty much flailing everywhere.

“No- _argh-_ idea!”

“Get in the zeta tube!” Leo called to Superboy who was busing fending the thing off. More of them were rapidly showing up, Leo had no idea from where. “Make this thing work!”

“I’m-trying..too!” Superboy grunted, throwing the thing off him and diving into the booth, landing half on top of Leo.

“Ow- hurry!” Leo squeaked as the creatures came at them.

_Superboy- 01A. Unauthorized personnel. Access denied._

“Override!” Superboy ordered. “Superboy, Kr EL 02!”

_Access granted. Guest- 2B._

“Go, go, go!” Leo shouted as one of the creatures tore off one of the sides of the booth.

He didn’t hear Superboy’s reply as a white light enveloped them and they were gone.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

“Now _this_ is working!” Impulse cheered as they slowly but surely started vaporizing the last of the monsters. With the help of Annabeth and Nico they were able to start making good headway on finishing off the last of the monsters. Wonder Girl, Beast Boy and Frank had arrived only a few minutes after Aqualad and others and it wasn’t long before there were only a few left.

“Finally,” Wonder Girl added, pushing her hair out of her way.

“Is everyone alright?” Aqualad asked, looking around the battered and bruised group.

“Never been better,” Nico sighed. Maybe he had overexerted himself just a bit with the amount of dead skeletons he’d brought up. It was definitely harder to do that in this world than his own.

“Way too tired to move.” Beast Boy moaned.

The sound of a motorcycle was heard and a few moments later Piper and Nightwing were making their way over, surveying the utterly and completely destroyed block and beaten up demigods and heroes.

“See?” Nightwing said with a fake frown, “they didn’t leave any cake for us.”

“If you snooze you lose, boss!” Beast Boy joked.

“Wait, what about Hazel? And Superboy and Leo?” Jason asked, noticing the other missing people. He had an arm wrapped around Piper’s waist, the other hand still holding his gladius.  

“Superboy and Leo were able to get the zeta tubes back online,” Nightwing answered. “They’re at the cave right now.”

Frank had a look of pure worry on his face and Nico gripped his blade tighter.

“What about Ha-”

“Frank!” a voice calling out from behind had everyone head’s turning.

“Hazel!” Frank and Nico all but shouted with relief, running up to the petite girl.

Frank wasted no time in pulling her into a tight hug. “Are you alright? Did they hurt? Gods I was so worried!”

Hazel looked about as banged up as the rest of them but she was smiling widely. “I’m alright! A bit sore around the edges but I’m good.”

They made their way back to the rest of the group, the other demigods giving Hazel a quick hug.

“What happened? How’d you get away?” Annabeth asked at the same time Batgirl said “where’s Red Hood?”

Hazel blinked. “Is that his name?”

“Who’s he?” Frank wanted to know. There was a small part of him that was upset that he wasn’t the one to rescue his girlfriend but he was mostly just relived she was alright and safe.

“I’ll tell you guys the whole story after we’ve all had a showers-”

“And food!” Impulse cheered.

“-but long story short I was tied up in some sort of underground room. I got a bit of my captor’s conversation before Red Hood, that’s his name, right? Before he rescued me.”

“Where is he now?” Aqualad asked, his eyes looking sad.

Hazel frowned. “Um, he was behind me for most of our run here, but when I got closer I turned around and couldn’t see him. I think he left, maybe?”

Batgirl gave a soft sigh. “Well, let’s just be thankful everything worked out. We’re done here, so let’s head back to the cave. We’ll reconvene to discuss what happened exactly.”

A collective relief seemed to wash over the group as the starting making their way back.

“Where did those things come from?” Piper questioned, more to herself.

Jason shook his head. “I have no idea. They weren’t any of us had ever seen, either.”

Annabeth didn’t bother giving any thought to small conversation, her head full of thoughts on the one person of the demigods who wasn’t with them.

“Wait,” Blue Beetle said, looking around. “Where’s Nightwing?”

Nico pointed to one of the few buildings still remaining erect a little ways down. “I saw him walk off over that way. Should I go get him?”

Annabeth glanced over to Batgirl but she seemed to be having a serious conversation with Aqualad at the front of the group. She nodded. “Yeah, probably. Let him know we’re all leaving.”

“Kay,” Nico answered back as he made his way to where he saw Nightwing disappear. He blinked and shook his head, trying to clear his slightly fuzzy vision. He would definitely be sleeping well tonight.

“…can come back, you know?” Nico caught the last of Nightwing’s sentence before he turned the corner and saw him facing someone- must have been the Red Hood, Hazel’s rescuer.

They must have sense him coming up because the conversation immediately stopped.

“Nightwing, we’re lea-” Nico stopped midsentence, his eyes widening looking directly at the red hooded man.

“Nico?” Nightwing asked gently, noticing his shocked expression.

“What’s wrong with this kid?” Red Hood asked, his hand unconsciously moving to one of his holsters.

Nico didn’t think to stop the words that came out of his mouth, not looking away from the Red Hood.

“You should be _dead._ ”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

Leo sighed contentedly, pulling on a fresh shirt and slowly limping out into the living room area. After they’d arrived at the cave Superboy had immediately contacted the other teams to see if they needed help. Thankfully things were just being wrapped up and Leo wasted no time making good use of the showers and some of the extra clothes that the Young Justice members had supplied the demigods.

He found Superboy looking at some holographic screens, no doubt they had something to do with the mess they had just dealt with.

“They’re on their way back,” Superboy informed. “You should probably have you ankle look at, though.”

Leo made a noise. “Probably. Ow. Why didn’t you get hurt?”

The corners of Superboy’s lips curled up a little bit at Leo’s expression. He looked like he was trying to solve a puzzle without have the correct pieces.

“I’m part Kryptonian,” Superboy answered. “It’s, uh, a bit complicated but I have pretty tough skin.”

Leo blinked. “Oh, okay. What about the others? Are they alright?”

Superboy turned back to the screen. “For the most part, yeah. None of them suffered any serious injuries from what Aqualad told me. But…”

“But…?” Leo prompted when Superboy didn’t finish his sentence.

The Kryptonian had concerned look on his face, his brows furrowed.

“I don’t know about Percy.”

.

.

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> : I’m alive!! And incredibly sorry for the ridiculous amount of time it took me to write/post this…wow. That’s the longest yet, I think. I mean, seriously. You guys are amazing to be this patience :) I do blame life and other fandoms (*cough* FMA *cough*) So…um, yeah! :D   
> there’s some plot here! A little bit, but that’s an improvement from last time, haha! Um, there’s a lot that’s going on in the chapter, so I’m really sorry if it gets confusing (I mean, I was confusing myself at times 0.0 but hopefully you’ll still enjoy it :”))  
> So I think I could go on and on about this baby but, to keep a very long rant short, it’s un-betaed, so you’ll probably be able to tell :3 again, if you have any questions at all, let me know! I’m more than happy to try to explain some of this craziness ^.^   
> Warnings: again, just a few bad words (nothing horrible though ;)) and um, some grammar mistakes, oocness, lack of plot and shipping. (*facepalm* whyyyy? I promise. Next chapter. It will happen! ^^)


	8. Quiet Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this took forever, but I hope you enjoy it :) and like, I kinda make a lot of this up on the spot, cuz I know the general direction I want this to go but the rest of it just comes, just btw ;) also in the chapter, in the original Young Justice comics they do play a game similar to the one I tried describing, that's where the idea came from :) just fyi

 

**Young and Bullet Proof**

_Chapter eight: Quiet revelations_

Percy woke up with tears streaming down his face.

He was laying on a bed- a cot, he realized after a little while- and there was the sounds of whirling machines and echoing drops surrounding him.

"Wha…" He tried, but his voice came out scratchy and hoarse, like he'd been screaming for hours. There sharp and searing throbbing in his chest, and he winced as he took a deep breath.  _Where am I…? And what happened?_ He raised a hand to face, noticing for the first time the IV attached to it and brushed away some of his hair from his eyes.

_-They were all bleeding-dead, their eyes glazed open._

_It's a nightmare! Wake up! Percy wanted to scream, to wake up but he couldn't._

_He'd failed them-_

Percy gasped and jerked up, digging his fingers into his head as his vision swam.

The images were coming faster, horrifying,  _he was losing her_ …

"Percy!"

He…his mother, she was in trouble, and Annabeth-

"Percy!"

Someone calling his name tore Percy from his memories, and two hands grabbed his shoulders.

He realized belatedly that he was trembling.

"Hey, Percy. Percy, look at me. Its okay, you're safe. None of it was real."

Percy took a shuddering breath and looked up, blinking past his tears. Robin was holding his shoulders, still wearing his domino mask and a pair of black jeans and a red hoodie. He gently moved Percy hands from his hair and pushed Percy back to down on the cot.

"You're safe." Robin gave him an encouraging smile. "It's over."

"What…" Percy licked his cracked lips. His throat felt like sandpaper. "What happened?"

Robin let out a weary sigh and sat down in a chair next to Percy. With a blink of surprise Percy glanced around himself and realized that he was in some sort of miniature hospital. That seemed to be inside…a cave?

"You were hit with some of Scarecrow's Fear Gas, it's…not pretty stuff." Robin explained quietly. He reached over somewhere outside of Percy's sight and uncapped a water bottle, handing it to Percy with care.

Percy frowned and took a sip of the water, relishing the feeling of the water down his parched throat. "Tell me something I don't know."

Robin gave a small laugh. "Yeah. We managed to find the antidote and flush it out of your system, but it'll probably take a while for…for the nightmares to go away."

Percy could only give a wry smile. "Those aren't anything new, so just a few more can't hurt, right?" He tried to maintain a week smile with his equally weak joke. (Tartarus had been horrifying, he'd already had most of his nightmares shoved in his face then.) Besides, he had Annabeth. He could deal-

_Annabeth!_

"Percy?" Robin leaned over him, the concern on his face noticeable even with his mask.

"The others!" Percy said, sitting up with jolt again. Unfortunately Robin didn't jerk his head back soon enough, and Percy's head slammed right into his.

"Crap-  _ow_!" Percy groaned, rubbing his forehead.

"A little warning next time?" Robin asked, wincing as he touched his face. "You okay?"

"Yeah, sorry- but what about Annabeth? And Jason? And the others? And the monsters?"

"Um, you should probably not move too much," Robin said as he made Percy lie down again. "You were shot in the chest and Alfred will get pissed if you pull the stiches."

Percy blinked in surprise. Oh. That's why his chest hurt so much.

"And don't worry, they're all okay. A little beat up, but okay." He gave Percy a small smile. "They're all at the Cave still with other Young Justice members. Last I heard Piper and Cassie were creaming the boys at  _Call of Duty._ "

Percy closed his eyes briefly.  _Thank the gods._

- _The monsters have stopped disappearing when he looks at them. Gaea smiles and constricts her hand slowly_ -

Percy's eyes flew open.

He was still lying on the cot with Robin next to him, still in the cave-ish thing and it wasn't real.

 _Just don't close your eyes,_   _just don't close your eyes._

"You okay?"

Percy looked over to Robin who was looking at him carefully. He shot him what he hoped was a smirk and not a haunted look.

"I'll be okay. What happened while I was out?" He frowned. "How long was I out?"

"Um," Robin ran a hand through his bangs. "Well, you've been out for three days."

Percy stared at him. "Three days?"

Robin nodded. "And we think we've figured out how you guys got here."

"What? How?" Percy looked at him in disbelief.

"It's complicated? But not?" Robin pursed his lips. "I'm not totally clear on the how, I wasn't there, but apparently Nico and Red Hood realized that somehow, something from the Underworld in our world snagged onto something from your guys' Underworld. I think. It was a little hard to follow them completely."

"Um…" Percy couldn't help but internally groan. This was just their luck, he wasn't even surprised it was something so strange. Heck, the president could have been an alien and that would've seemed normal. He frowned. "So we were dragged into this world by the Underworld? And what's a 'Red Hood'?"

"He's with us Bats, but sorta does his own thing." Percy got the feeling there was a story behind this dude, but it was probably better not to ask. "And pretty much, yeah."

"What do we do now?" Percy questioned, placing a hand on chest. He figured he was already hooked up to some sort of painkiller, but getting shot  _hurt._ A lot. It was also slightly difficult to breathe.

"We're not really sure. Um, they still don't get why you guys came here, or if there even is someone who pulled you to our world, so that's the next step to figure out." Robin gave a half shrug. "Honestly, it sounds way too coincidently for you guys to just all randomly show up here by questionable means. And in our line of work, coincident isn't really good a thing."

Percy nodded, taking another sip from the water, trying to not to let his hand shake too much. The aftermath of the fear toxin wasn't going to be leaving him anytime soon.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

"Good news," Nightwing said with a thumbs up, "Percy's awake."

Annabeth gripped the edge of the kitchen counter where she and Nightwing had been talking when he'd received the transmission from Robin, and took a deep breathe.

A little over a week since they had been pulled by something into a different universe and three days since she'd seen Percy. It'd been torture.

"Is he alright?" The rest of the words seemed to be caught in her throat, and she could feel the tension in her chest ease slightly by Nightwing's last two words.

"He's up and talking. He and Robin will be heading over here shortly." Nightwing gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze.

Annabeth sat down heavily in one of the bar stools and covered her face with her hands. "Thank the gods." She whispered.

"And here's some more good news," Batgirl said as she joined them dressed in a pair of jeans and a blue tank top. "I was able to get in touch with Constantine- who was able to get in contact with Zatana- and he said they're going to look into this whole 'underworld travel' stuff that Nico and Red Hood discovered. He did say to still be careful, because we still don't know what and where those monsters came from and if there is some super crazed villain or god behind all this."

Nightwing made a fist and bumped it with Batgirl's. "Good. In the meantime Auqalad's going to return from Atlantis shortly and stay here to make sure the kids don't burn the place down." He said with a smirk and jutted his chin over to where a few of the demigods and Young Justice Heroes were hanging around the Cave entertaining themselves with various activities.

Batgirl nodded. "Also, we got in contact with the rest of Justice League, they're heading back. I relayed what happened here to them but it was hard to get a clear transmission."

"When's Percy getting here?" Annabeth asked, trying to keep her excitement contained.

"In a few minutes, probably." Batgirl offered.

"I'm going to be heading out to Bludhaven then," Nightwing said. "There are few things I need to look into."

Batgirl nodded. "Take care of yourself, Boy Wonder."

Nightwing grinned. "Don't I always?"

Annabeth didn't even try to interpret the secret conversation Batgirl and Nightwing here having just by looking at each other. She was distracted by the Zeta tubes whirling to life and the atomized voice saying ' _Robin- B02. Guest- B03'._

She jumped out of her chair.

" _Percy!_ "

**(\M/)**

**\/**

… _meanwhile_ …

"This *game makes no sense." Piper huffed, slumping in her chair.

"You just have to feel it." Bart wagged a finger and had gotten himself a three-layered turkey sandwich before Piper had the time to blink.

"Dude,  _that_ doesn't make sense." Gar looked at his ginger friend.

Jason frowned and Piper hid a smile. The way he scrunched his face like that was just too cute. "Explain to me again how this is supposed to work?"

"Well basically," Cassie started slowly, "you have this pile of cards from this trivia game,-" she pointed to one of the pile of cards that was on the table, "-and this other pile of answers from a totally different trivia game. And the cards that have the answers to the trivia questions are from the other trivia game. So when I pull up a card from the question pile the answer to my question is the card on top of the answers pile from the other game."

Hazel cocked her head to one side. "So how are you supposed to get the answer right if it's not even matched up properly?"

Jaime shook his head. "You don't, man. That's why this game is totally random."

"So how do you win?" Frank asked looking at the cards with distrust.

Gar and Bart looked at each other.

Bart shrugged. "Lucky guess?"

Leo, who'd been building something out of…Piper wasn't even sure, looked up with a grin. "That's pretty much the way I passed all my tests in highschool. Let's play this game!"

It was weirdly relaxing, being there around people they'd just met and hanging around after they'd all fought a battle together. But it just made Piper miss her friends and family back home even more. Spending time away from home had never really been an issue for her- or any of her other friends- before. But now, knowing that they  _didn't_ really know anything was just frustrating.

She saw Jason look over his shoulder and followed his gaze to where Annabeth, Batgirl and Nightwing were talking. Piper caught Jason's eye and sighed. As stressful as it must be for the rest of them, Piper's heart ached for what her friend had to go through for the past three days. Percy's absence had most definitely been felt by her, and the rest of Demigods. He was like their unofficial leader.

Hazel looked around the room. "Hey, where's Nico?"

"I think he's down at the grotto with Superboy." Jaime replied as he picked up a card. "Does anyone know what, like, when down with him and Red Hood?"

Leo shook his head. "Not me. What's a 'Red Hood'?"

"He's…well, we're not really sure who, exactly, but he's part of the Bats." Gar answered, his green tail flicking left and right.

"Yeah," Jason added, "Batgirl seemed to know him pretty well."

"Anyways," Cassie said pulling them back to the game, "At least you guys have a bit of a direction with this whole 'universe hopping' stuff."

Frank scratched his head. "Yeah, at least there's that. Not that we really know much even on that."

"Don't worry," Gar comforted, patting Frank on the head. The son of Mars shot the shapeshifter a questioning glance at that. "Nightwing and Aqualad are on the case. They'll get you guys home!"

"Yup," Bart started tossing some of the cards at Jamie who glared at the speedster. "And pretty soon the rest of JL will be back and then this'll really be solved."

That, Piper thought, did sound comforting.

"Okay, Leo, it's your turn." Cassie said, handing him a card.

"M'kay, 'It has served as a fortress, royal court, prison, torture chamber, place of execution, and museum since it was built by William the Conqueror over 900 years ago'. What is it?" Leo read off the card.

"Ummm…" Hazel held out the word.

"Alcatraz?" Jaimie supplied. Cassie face palmed.

Jason and Frank just shrugged their shoulders.

Bart rolled his eyes. "It's the Tower of London, duh."

"Nope," Leo said, popping the 'p'. "Not according to how you guys play this game." He picked up a card from the other pile. "The correct answer is-"

" _Percy!"_

**(\M/)**

**\/**

Percy didn't have time to blink before he felt something envelope him and even less time to panic before his brain registered the person pressing into him.

"Annabeth." Percy breathed, hugging her back as tightly as he could, hardly noticing the pain in his chest.

His beautiful alive,  _alive_ , butt-kicking girlfriend.

"Don't you  _ever_ -" Annabeth's tirade was cut off by Percy pressing his mouth against hers. She felt his hands rest against her hips and she ran her own through his hair, relishing the touch.

"I'm here." He murmured, resting his forehead against hers, their lips almost brushing. Annabeth wrapped both arms around him and held him, the anxiety and worry that had been pent up inside her for the past few days slowly subsiding.

"I bet she wants him to do  _that_  again." Bart piped up. He ignored his friend's groans.

Percy couldn't help but grin at that, and looking at Annabeth, he knew the kid was right.

"Okay but before that," Jason said walking over to Percy and Annabeth (Robin had disappeared at some point), "Bro." A huge smile split across his face as he pulled Percy into a hug.

"You gonna kiss me too?" Percy joked. Jason shoved him away, but gently.

"You wish." Jason rolled his eyes.

"Thank the gods you're alright." Piper said and eyed Percy sternly. "You're still hurt, aren't you?"

Percy gave her a cheeky grin and high-fived Leo.

"I'm actually good." Percy said, his hand around Annabeth's waist. "Really good."

They moved over to the rest of the half-bloods and heroes, the cacophony of noise that came from their welcomes something Percy never thought he'd find so comforting.

"What was the right answer?" Gar asked, turning to Leo as Hazel gave Percy a hug.

"Um, Abraham Lincoln." Leo responded, handing Gar the card.

The shape-shifter scratched his head. "Piper's right. This game makes  _no_ sense."

**(\M/)**

**\/**

"Hey."

Cassie felt her heart jump at the beautiful smile he gave her as he sat down beside her on the couch.

"Hi." She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. It wasn't often that Robin- Tim, would wear civvies around them. Personally, she liked him in both, although the suit showed off more. She shook her head.

"You free later tonight? Because I kinda want to watch  _Star Wars VII_."

Cassie started at him. "You mean you haven't seen it yet?"

Tim shook his head with a rueful grin. "Nope. If it's not Scarecrow and Clayface breaking out of Arkham its homework and demigods from another multiverse showing up."

Cassie laughed and pressed herself to him. "Okay Boy Wonder, you're on for tonight."

Tim gave a fist bump. "Awesome."

Cassie snorted. "Geek." Tim grinned back at her, and she could bet that his eyes were sparkling behind his sunglasses.

"But I'm a wonderful geek."

Cassie pressed a kiss to his lips. "I know."

**(\M/)**

**\/**

Nico looked over at the only other person in the Grotto with him and then back at the statues of the fallen heroes.

That was one thing, that no matter where you went, death would be there. It made Nico wonder why the other demigods thought that Poseidon, or Zeus had the biggest realms. Even Nico, a son of Hades who'd spent so much time in the Underworld didn't know all its secrets. Apparently one of those was that people could come  _back_.

It made his chest hurt a little.

Bianca.

What if, what if there'd been a way for him to…bring her back. All those years ago.

"You okay?" The words broke the silence surrounding them, and Nico turned to Superboy whose gaze hadn't moved from the statue of a girl. Nico wondered if she'd come from Atlantis.

"Fine." He answered.

He expected Superboy to push, because Nico knew he was being obvious that something was bothering him.

But he didn't say anything more, so Nico went back to his thoughts.

Something was weird here. He could sense the Underworld, but it was different and faint. That was something new. He wondered if it was like for the others. But not faint enough for Nico not to have known that the Red Hood guy was supposed to be dead. Neither Nightwing nor Red Hood expanded on the how, and it was bugging Nico.

"Hey."

Nico blinked at looked over at Superboy, who'd turned to him.

"I know this might not be my place, but if you have questions, ask them." He said, not unkindly.

Nico nodded. "Thanks."

"And Nico?" Superboy said as turned to leave. "Your friends are asking about you. Percy is."

Nico wondered briefly how Superboy knew that then remembered Robin telling him that superhearing was power.

"Wanna go up with me?" Superboy offered.

Nico cast one last look around the quiet Grotto and statues standing tall. "Yeah," he said, offering Superboy a half smile. "Thanks."

Superboy gave the demigod a light punch on shoulder. "No problem."

**(\M/)**

**\/**

"I thought I'd find you here."

Nightwing crouched down on the sky-scraper's ledge next Red Hood, gazing out over Gotham. It was sad that hardly anybody got to see her from this view, Nightwing mused. It was beautiful.

"Goldie." Red Hood said, not moving from his position.

"You find out anything?"

Red Hood shook his head. "No. Nothing on the streets either."

"Not even who those goons were working for?"

"Nada. Zilch. But I haven't looked everywhere yet." Red Hood answered.

Nightwing sighed. "Okay, well I'm headed to Bludhaven. Check around over there." He looked at his brother from the corner of his eye. "Wanna come with?"

Nightwing gave himself a mental pat on the back as he saw Red Hood consider his offer for a bit. He wasn't sure if Jason was in a mood or just keeping his distance more than usual. Nightwing wondered if what Nico had said had affected Jason more than he'd let on, reminders of what had happened to him all those years ago were pretty much nightmares.

"Nah, I can't." Red Hood replied. "Roy's dumping Lian on me."

"But you secretly love it when he does that," Nightwing teased, knowing it was the truth. Jason had a special place in his heart for Roy's daughter. Between the two of them, Wally and himself, Nightwing already felt sorry for whichever boy would end up wanting to go out with her.

"Don't you have, like, nine new kiddies to be watching over?" Red Hood retorted.

Nightwing let out a laugh as he stood up. "There's eight, and Aqualad's on it."

"He's actually probably is the best choice for that." Red Hood said. Nightwing could hear the grin in his voice.

"Yup. See you later, Jay." Nightwing said, and enjoyed the feeling of falling twenty-five stories. Not before catching Red Hood's "Yeah, later Goldie."

**(\M/)**

**\/**

"He's awake!"

"Quiet voices, please."

"Oh right, sorry."

" _Uhnn…_ "

"…ce? Can…hear me?"

Superman watched with concerned eyes as one of his best friends slowly started regain conciseness. Sometimes Clark whished he wasn't a super powered man from a planet that no longer existed. It would have made life less painful. Not physically, because the list of things that could actually hurt him could be counted on one hand, but emotionally. Seeing someone you care deeply about nearly die wasn't something Clark enjoyed.

And without his X-Ray vision Clark wouldn't have known the extent of his friend's injuries. It didn't take a detective to know Batman would be out for a while. If he actually followed doctor's orders, that is.

They were currently in Wonder Woman's invisible jet, flying back through the cosmos from a mission that could have a gone a lot better. Bruce would have been brooding about it if he'd been able to. Instead he was lying in make-shift med-bay, bandages cover his bare torso, shoulders, and wrists.  _Something I could have prevented._

"Let's go," Wonder Woman said, motioning to Flash, who gave Clark a thumbs up and then was gone. Clark gave Diana a grateful look for giving him time alone with Bruce.

"We're almost to the Watchtower, I'll let you know when we arrive." She told him as she exited the room.

"Thank you, Diana."

"Clark?" Bruce's voice was groggy, thanks to the amount of painkillers he was on. His blue eyes were hazy and unfocused.

Most people thought that Batman was indestructible. Clark was one of the few people who know just how human he actually was.

"How do you feel?" Clark asked.

"What happened?" And that was Bruce, always the detective.

Clark rested his hand against his friend's shoulder and prevented him from trying to sit up. "We were ambushed and you took a hit."  _Something I should have protected you from._  Clark thought to himself angrily.

Clark knew that Bruce would have been able to tell what was bother him and snap him out of it with some sharp remark if he'd been able too. Instead he tried to sit up again and Clark gently pushed him back down.

"Clark." Even with his injures and medication, Bruce still managed to put a growl in his voice.

"You're not moving until we get to the Watchtower, Bruce." Clark said in a firm voice.

Bruce glared at him and Clark stared back.

"Fine." Bruce muttered and tried to hide a wince but didn't quite manage to conceal it all the way. Clark  _was_ Superman.

"And we might have a situation when we get back," Clark said with a sigh.

"What kind of situation?"

"Well, we know why a bunch of demigod teenagers from another universe showed up in the middle of the Young Justice Headquarters. Who brought them there, more accurately." Just by the look on Clark's face Bruce could tell it wasn't someone good. (Not that anyone of them had actually considered that.)

"Who?"

" _ETA to Watchtower, 15 minutes._ " Diana's voice came over the speaker.

"Superman." Bruce said quietly.

"Trigon." Clark looked at his friend with serious eyes. "Trigon did."

.

.

.

 

 


	9. From Within the Shadows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: wait, an update? okay, so the world’s probably ending. But seriously, I’m super sorry for the mega delay in posting, like, wow. but, I got back into it, and I know this is shorter than the others but I really wanted to give you guys something and just not make you guys wait longer, because that’s just #mean. (although I didn’t really edit it all that well so please just ignore the spelling/grammar mishaps ;))
> 
> thank you all for the wonderful reviews and favs for this story, honestly when I started it I didn’t expect this much positivity for this story. (: It seriously blows my mind, so again, thank you.
> 
> Please let me know what you think of this story, I’m slightly worried about OOCness and it not making sense, so let me know what you thought! I’m seriously going to try to post the next chapter super soon- thank you for sticking with me for this long, you guys are ridiculously rad.

 

**Young and Bullet Proof**

_Chapter nine: From Within the Shadows_

 

 

Percy’s nightmare began with him running.

The world around him was black and red, eerie shadows and haunted voices, and _screaming._ He was sweating as he gasped for breath, his legs were trembling and his hands were clammy.

He was running as fast he possibly could, but he didn’t know why. Just that there was a presence here, something so inexplicably evil that he needed to get out, now.

_“Demi-god.”_

Percy stumbled on something and scraped the palms of his hands against the torn up earth. His eyes searched frantically for the voice that was calling his name.

He groped blindly for Riptide in his jean pockets, shuddering with relief when his hands closed around the magical weapon.

“Wh-what?” He whispered, but his voice echoed around like he’d shouted it. Part of him berated himself for only coming up with ‘what’ as an answer the terrifying voice, the rest of him too confused and coiled with anticipation for…something.

The space around blurred into focus, barren earth surrounded and illuminated with fire.

Percy’s eyes widen when he saw what was around him. The mounds that he had thought were rocks, were formed out of people, bodies pressed together so tight and intimately that they were nearly indistinguishable. Their limbs were bent in impossibly ways, some of their necks twisted so far around that they’d started to split open. The stench hit Percy like a brick wall; skin was peeling off and rotting away leaving only decaying flesh and bone.

There was something wrong. Percy could feel shudders running through his body but half the things he should have been feeling was missing. The scorching heat of the flames, the screams of the people tangled together, it was like he was looking at himself through another’s view.

“ _Finally. I have found you, Perseus Jackson.”_

Percy whipped around, trying to find the source of the voice. “How do you know me?” Percy demanded.

“ _The dead speak of you, Son of Poseidon. Their whispers reach my domain.”_

“Why am I here?” Percy stood still, trying to make sense of everything.

There was a sudden silence as everything around Percy became muted and dull.

 _“Your blood shall succeed where hers’ did not.”_ The images flickered as Percy felt a wave of nausea overcome him. _“The seal shall be broken, demi-god, do not try to run. Your life is mine.”_

Percy gasped as if he’d been kneed in the gut as the world around him spun overhead. An inhuman roar filled his ears as his vision went black.

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

“Percy!”

Annabeth gripped her boyfriend’s shoulders as he jolted awake.

Beads of sweat trailed down the sides of his face, his chest was heaving as his breathing finally slowed down.

“Percy?” Annabeth said quietly, searching his glazed eyes. “You with me?”

It’d been only two days after Percy’s recovery from the incident with Scarecrow. After being submerged in water in the Cave’s pool underground, Percy’s injuries had mended- an event that had a lot of the heroes bewildered and amazed at. And although physically wise Percy was almost fully healed, Robin had told them in quiet tones that the nightmares and flashbacks wouldn’t heal so quickly.

Percy’s eyes finally focused on hers and she could feel him relax somewhat. “Y-yeah.” He licked his chapped lips and sat up in his bed. “I’m with you Wise Girl.”

_Thank the gods._

Annabeth pulled him into a tight hug, running a soothing hand through his hair. “Tartarus?” She whispered.

Annabeth couldn’t count the times since the defeat of Gaea that the two of them had been woken by each other’s screams and sobs. Their nightmares were now a part of them. Just like their bond of holding the up the sky all those years ago gave them matching physical proof of their burden, Tartarus had given something too. Not something anyone could see in anything other than their eyes that looked old beyond their years, but something only they knew.

She felt Percy shudder in her arms. “No.” He breathed. “Something worse.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

Nico quietly slipped into the rec room, walking silently past Gar who was curled up next to a sprawled out Leo, both fast asleep on the couches.

He poured himself a glass of water and downed it, trying to quiet his nerves. There was something in the Cave. Something that reeked of death and an evil that Nico had only ever sensed in the depths of Tartarus. Nico sighed softly and pushed his black hair out of his eyes. He’d awoken only fifteen minutes ago and had been trying to find Nightwing or Aqualad ever since. He knew he could always wake Percy or Annabeth, but he knew firsthand how hard sleep was to come by, and Percy had sorely needed it after the run in with Scarecrow.

Nico set his glass in the sink and moved past the kitchen and further down the hallway. Noises from the sparring room caught his attention and he quickly made his way towards it, hoping that at least one of the Young Justice leaders would be there and he wouldn’t have to wake someone up.

Nico held back a groan when he didn’t see either of them, but was grateful that Superboy was there. He was easy to talk to.

“Nice.” Superboy commented and threw a punch of his own at a kid Nico didn’t recognize.

“You totally gave me that, man.” The guy responded as he dodged Superboy’s punch. He had pretty cool hair in Nico’s opinion, dread locks held back by a blue headband. His skin color was darker than Hazel’s and he wore a blue hoodie with jeans.

Superboy grunted and caught the guy by the back of his ankle with his foot and took his feet out from under him.

“Ugh.” He moaned. “That’s the third time. This sucks.”

Superboy gave a small chuckle. “You need to be able to fight without your powers. Trust me, that’s a lesson I was taught the hard way.”

“By Black Canary?”

Superboy nodded. “ _And_ the Batman.”

The guy gave an appreciative whistle. “That must have been tough.”

Superboy offered him his hand and pulled him up without any effort. “It was. But it was also exactly what I had needed at the time. What’s up, Nico?”

Nico started slightly. _Right. Super-hearing._

“Hey Superboy.” Nico greeted as he walked over to them, flickering his eyes toward the other guy then back to Superboy. “I need to talk to Nightwing. Do you know where he is?”

“What about?” Superboy asked as he pulled up one of the holographic screens seemingly out of thin air.

Nico waved his hand in an all-encompassing gesture as if to say ‘all of this’. “A feeling. A really bad one.”

Superboy’s crystal blue eyes locked with Nico’s obsidian ones. He nodded once and turned back to the screen. “I’ll let him know. He’s at the Watchtower right now.”

“That sounded super ominous.” The other teenager spoke up. “You one of the uh, demi-gods?” He asked Nico.

Nico nodded. “Son of Hades.” He responded, not really in the mood for pleasantries after the nightmarish sensations he’d received.

The guy blinked. “Woa, that’s pretty cool, man. I’m Static,” he offered. “But call me Virgil.”

“Nico,” Nico introduced.

“Nightwing, its Superboy. Can you get back to the Cave?” Superboy asked over the screen as Nico and Virgil both turned their attention to the conversation.

 _“What’s up Supes?”_ Nightwing asked. The visual feed was off, but Nico could tell that he was tense.

Superboy exchanged looks with Nico. “Something’s come up over here, Nico needs to speak with you.”

 _“Something’s come up over here, too.”_ Nightwing responded.

“Let me guess,” Nico said. “Not something good.”

 _“No.”_ Nightwing answered. _“Not good at all.”_

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

Nightwing sighed and leaned his body into one of the chairs around the conference table. He, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Guardian and Aqualad were gathered in one of the Watchtowers many private meeting rooms, discussing the newest development in light of the League’s recent mission.

“I guess there’s no hope in me asking ‘are you sure’, is there?” Nightwing asked wryly.

Trigon.

_Freaking Trigon._

Honestly, Dick shouldn’t have expected anything less.

Superman shook his head immediately. “No. We’ve finally managed communication with Constantine and Dr. Fate, who’ve both confirmed it.”

The Justice Leaguers had returned a few hours previously before calling the Young Justice leaders to an impromptu meeting, knowing that delaying wouldn’t do any good.

“But what does Trigon want with a bunch of teenagers from another multiverse?” Batgirl asked, frowning. She tossed a lock of her red hair over her shoulder. “They shouldn’t even have anything to do with each other.”

“They do not, as far as we are concerned.” Aqualad put in.

“Then this doesn’t make sense at all.” Mal added. “Like, did Trigon randomly decided to screw with us and multiverse? What is he anyways? Does he even do stuff like that?”

Dick shared a glance with Superman and Wonder Woman. The Young Justice’s interaction with the Leagues major villains was kept as minimum as it could be, bar circumstances. They’d already tangled with them during the Reach Invasion and facing the Light, but players like the Joker, Darksied, Doomsday and others of that caliber were beings the League handled.

It wasn’t any wonder that even Mal wasn’t clear on who, or _what_ , Trigon was exactly.

Aqualad nodded. “You’re right, it does not make sense.”

Wonder Woman crossed her legs, laying a hand down on the table. “He’s a demon, a powerful one of inter-dimensional origin, and one we don’t take lightly,” she said, answering Mal’s question. “And if we are confused then that means we’re missing something. This was no coincidence, it took planning and power to manipulate the multiverse to bring people across the dimensions, let along _specific_ people, if what this girl Hazel told us is to be believed.”

Dick ran a hand through his hair, his mind whirling with different possibilities. “Have we had anything related at all with Trigon happen lately?”

Superman shook his head. “No, not that I’m aware of.”

“So then what if-” Mal said.

“-Wait.” Dick interrupted, standing up quickly from his chair. “I just remembered something. Batman mentioned something a few weeks about a case he was working on- an occult rising through Metropolis and Gotham. At the time we didn’t know much, other than that they operated at night and knew how to keep a low profile. However, I do remember him saying that what was weird about the occult was that it looked to be _searching_ for something.”

“Okay,” Batgirl said, leaning forward, “so how does that tie into this?

“Get this,” Dick answered, pulling up a holographic screen and displaying a case file from the Watchtowers database. “When the League first fought Trigon, he had operated through an occult called Church of Blood.”

“You’re right,” Superman said. “I remember this, we’d taken care of it after realizing that they served Trigon.”

“Right. However, the occult Batman was looking into is called Brothers Blood. B could tell you more than I could about the why and how, and it might be a stretch, but B suspected that they weren’t just trying to be an occult, they are actually looking for something. But now I’m wondering if they’re not looking for _someone_.

“Or some _ones._ ” Mal tacked on.

“Wait,” Batgirl said, “So do you think the Brothers Blood is like, working for Trigon then?”

“Church of Blood 2.0?” Aqualad asked.

Dick shrugged apologetically. “I don’t know, Batman might. I know he’d have ideas for sure, but he wasn’t able to make a lot of progress because of the League’s mission, and I had my hands full with the YJ.”

“But that doesn’t rule out the possibility.” Wonder Woman stated.

Dick nodded.

“Great.” Mal sighed.

“We have to talk to Batman.” Batgirl said. “I can head over to the Batcave and check in with him, if he’s up.”

“Agent A put him on bed rest?” Wonder Woman asked, a fond smile on her face.

“We hope so.” Dick answered. “But you know how stubborn B is.”  

Superman cocked his head slightly to the side. “He’s still out. But the medication should wear off soon.”

“Man, super-hearing must seriously come in handy.” Mal muttered under his breath.

“Alright.” Dick stood up again. “I’m going to head back and talk with Percy and others, see if I can get anything. Can you contact me as soon as B wakes up?” He asked Superman, who nodded. “I’ll let you know.”

“Hold up,” Mal said, his hand raised. He pulled down another screen with a swipe of his hand and displayed it for the others. “We’ve got a call from Superboy at the Cave.”

“Put us through.” Dick said.

“ _Nightwing, its Superboy. Can you get back to the Cave?_ ” Superboy asked.  

Batgirl, Aqualad and Mal all straighten up, recognizing Superboy’s tone of voice.

“What’s up Supes?” Nightwing asked, glancing between the gathered superheroes.

  _“Something’s come up over here, Nico needs to speak with you.”_

 _Great._ Nightwing thought. “Something’s come up over here, too.” He responded, knowing that delving into the whole explanation would better with everyone present.

 _“Let me guess,”_ a new voice- Nico’s- added. “ _Not something good_.”

 _“_ No _.”_ Nightwing answered grimly. “Not good at all.”

**(\M/)**

**\/**

 

The air was cold.

Actually, everything was cold. She could feel her toes numbing over even through her boots, and she couldn’t feel the tips of her fingers. After spending so much time trapped in _that_ place, she hadn’t realized how cold the out-side world could be. And the _feelings._ Coming from everywhere and everyone, the girls standing outside, near the clubs, the men walking down the street opposite her, clearly drunk, it was taking all her concentration to block it out.

She needed help.

After expending so much energy and magic escaping from that hellhole and the amount of mental willpower she had to keep up to protect herself from everyone’s emotions around her, there was no way she’d make it far enough or keep ahead of them.

But there was no way she was going back.

_Ever._

She rubbed her hands together quickly, trying to get some feeling back into them. The thin jacket and pair of torn black jeans weren’t helping either.

 _Well it’s not like I had much of a wardrobe choice._ She thought sardonically to herself.

The noise from a nearby night club overpowered her, the loud bass and noises of the people inside seemed to explode in volume.

_Concentrate. Just. Concentrate._

And suddenly, she felt it.

The all too familiar pin-prick of her father’s magic reaching towards her, making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

“No.” Her eyes widened, and turning around, she saw him.

 _Your role is not done, Child of Trigon._ The voice seemed to echo in her head.

She started backing up, clenching her fists at her sides and willing her magic to her.

_You will not continue further._

“Wrong.” She said, her voice icy and cold, devoid of any emotion. Purple eyes started at the man head on, never wavering. She was tired. Mentally drained and exhausted. But she wasn’t going back.

No way in hell.

_Do not try to resist. You will not succeed._

 “Watch me.” Raven said.

And with that, Raven raised her hands that were now glowing dark blue and stared at the man who’d tortured her, held her against her will, and worse- served her father- with eyes that were glowing red.

.


End file.
